LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

-gX^H' 

Shelf... 



UNITED STATES OF AMEEICA. 



PROTESTANTISM AND THE BIBLE. 

LECTURES 

DELIVERED IN ST. ANN'S CHURCH 

ON THE 

SUED AY EVENINGS OF ADVENT 1880, 

BY THE 

Very Key. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.Gh, LL.D. 




NEW YORK : 
ROBERT CODDXNGTON, 246 Fourth Avenue. 
1880, 



Copyright, 1880, by 
ROBERT CODDINGTON. 

The Library 
of Congress 



HEWITT, PRINTER, 27 ROSE STREET 



PREFACE 



fjpHE following lectures present, in a brief and popu- 
lar form, the argument against Protestantism, 
drawn from its use of the Holy Scriptures. They are 
a continuation of former discourses upon the nature 
and results of the Protestant Reformation. Wher- 
ever you approach error you find contradictions and 
inconsistency. The houses of heretics and schisma- 
tics are divided against themselves, and built upon 
either absolute falsehood or the perversion of truth. 
The children of Protestant parents are fast going 
away from every species of dogmatism ; and the 
different sects are losing not only unity of faith, but 
also the conviction of the necessity of a creed. Liber- 
alism, or freedom of thought in matters of revelation, 
is the characteristic of our times. No article of faith 
is made the condition of church-membership, or even 
of the exercise of the ministry. Creeds must grow 
with the progress of science, and men must be left 



4 Prefa ce. 

free to embrace new views, as day unto day brings 
more light, and widens the circle of knowledge. 

Yet there are among the many to whom the Catho- 
lic truth is unknown those who can never relinquish 
the associations of childhood, nor all the truths of 
Christianity. They cling to their Bibles, which they 
have received as the oracles of God and the words of 
Christ to a fallen world. They identify their inter- 
pretations of the inspired Scriptures with all that 
they have of religion, and with all their hopes of 
a future life. We would not for one moment judge 
their consciences. But, for the reason that we believe 
in their sincerity, we would press upon them the dis- 
charge of a duty from which they cannot be excused. 
They are bound to examine well the grounds of their 
faith. They cannot take the Bible as their only 
teacher, without knowing the authority which has 
received it from the Holy Ghost and delivered it to 
men. They cannot credit the falsehoods which gave 
birth to the Reformation, and which are still repeated 
to the ignorant, as well as to those who are wilfully 
deceived. They cannot close their eyes to the facts 
which all around us testify to the logical conse- 
quences of the principle of private judgment. The 



Preface, 5 

Bible must be authenticated by some living, infallible 
witness, or else it cannot stand. If it be accepted as 
the work of the Divine Spirit upon the testimony of 
the Catholic Church, then in all things must that 
testimony be obeyed. The Scriptures and the Church 
cannot be separated, neither in logic nor in fact. 
The attempt to separate them violates the order of 
God, and leads to countless contradictions ; while it 
results in the abuse of the sacred word to the destruc- 
tion of faith and piety. It is strange that the lessons 
of the past three hundred years are lost upon so 
many ; that any should fail to see the truth which is 
so plain, which responds to the needs of the intellect 
and heart. One reason w^hy men do not accept the 
teachings of Catholic faith, is that they are un- 
willing to submit their intelligence to an authority 
external to themselves. If they would reason for 
one moment, they would see that such an authority 
is essential to the exercise of faith, and that the Pro- 
testant principle destroys, root and branch, the fun- 
damental idea of Christianity, which is a fixed creed 
coming from God through Christ. 

These lectures are only a mere outline of the sub- 
ject so much more ably treated in larger and more 



6 Preface. 

profound works. We venture to hope that they may 
fall into some hands where, by the divine blessing, 
they may bring forth fruit. They are presented to 
the public with the utmost charity to all, and the 
earnest desire to promote the glory of God in the sal- 
vation of souls. If honest Protestants could be 
brought to see the harmony, sufficiency, and divinity 
of the Catholic faith, they would gladly leave all 
their prejudices and worldly ties behind them, and 
follow Christ, who in His Church is the way, the 
truth, and the life. T. S. P. 

New Yoek, November 21, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE FIRST. 

PAGE 

The Pretensions of the Protestant Reformers in regard to 

the Scriptures, ... . . . . . . 9 

LECTURE SECOND. 

The Protestant Doctrine concerning the Bible, 43 

LECTURE THIRD. 

The History of the Bible among Protestants, ... 77 

LECTURE FOURTH. 

The Bible in the Catholic Church, 153 

t 



Lecture First. 



TEE PRETENSIONS OF TEE PROTESTANT REFORMERS 
IN REGARD TO TEE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 



"I have not written to you as to them who know not the truth, 
but as to them who know it ; and that no lie is of the truth." — 1 E. St. 
John ii. 21. 

AN a former occasion we have considered at some 
length the religious revolution commonly called 
the Protestant Reformation, with its results upon 
faith, morals, and society. The subject is of the 
highest importance, and demands the careful exami- 
nation of every sincere mind. It is terrible in matters 
of religion to be the victim of falsehood. We were 
able to show conclusively that the Reformers were in 
many cases depraved by their own teachings, and that 
infidelity and immorality were the legitimate fruits of 
their rebellion against the received Christianity. It 
is an evil tree which brings forth evil fruit ; it is an 
unholy system which is founded upon untruth, and 
which depends for its dissemination upon dishonesty. 



10 



First Lecture. 



This argument alone is sufficient to convince the true 
mind, since it is founded on the first simple principles 
of logic. 

The subject which we propose for your considera- 
tion during this Advent is connected with the conclu- 
sions of our former lectures. Still, it is of sufficient 
importance to demand a particular attention. The 
Holy Scriptures were taken by the early Reformers as 
the pretext for their departure from the received 
Christian creed, and the foundation of their erroneous 
doctrines. They even charged upon the Catholic 
Church, the neglect and contradiction of the Scrip- 
tures, and professed in the light of the inspired word 
to restore Christianity to its primitive purity. Their 
descendants have ever since claimed the Bible as their 
peculiar property, and rely upon it for their doc- 
trines ; while by it they seek to justify their practices. 
They would represent that their creed is the only 
Scriptural one, and that the faith of the Catholic 
Church has come from the corruption of the inspired 
writings, and wilful disobedience to their teachings. 

It will be the purpose of these lectures to enter 
upon this subject briefly, but at the same time satis- 
factorily ; and we shall endeavor to show where the 
truth lies. We shall proceed to expose the facts of 
the controversy, to manifest what Protestantism has 
done with the Bible, and to demonstrate the logical 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 11 



ground upon which its Scriptural pretensions stand. 
The simple plan of our argument will be to set forth, 
first, the false pretensions of the Protestant Reformers 
in regard to the Bible ; secondly, the doctrine of the 
principal Protestant churches, with its logical fruits 
and conclusions ; thirdly, the actual history of the 
Bible among the Reformers and their children ; and, 
lastly, the doctrine and practice of the Catholic 
Church. 

As in former lectures, we shall advance the testi- 
mony of leading Protestants, and facts admitted by 
their own writers. Although these discourses are 
popular, and make no pretension to the dignity of a 
theological treatise, yet, as they contain the outline 
of an unanswerable argument, we humbly hope they 
may produce an effect upon some minds which are 
tired of mere assertions and logical contradictions. 
To this end we earnestly implore the assistance and 
blessing of the Divine Spirit, without whose inspira- 
tion nothing can avail in word or work. He can make 
use of the meanest instrument, and write living and 
life-giving characters upon the willing heart. 

This evening' s lecture divides itself naturally into 
two parts, in which we shall first consider the preten- 
sions of the Protestant Reformers in regard to the 
Bible, and, secondly, show their dishonesty and un- 
truth. 



12 



First Lecture. 



I. 

The pretensions of the Reformers may be reduced 
to these three : first, that the Holy Scriptures were 
generally unknown to the people, and even to the 
priesthood ; secondly, that the Catholic Church had 
suppressed them and prevented their use ; and, third- 
ly, that on the ignorance of the written word of Grod 
was built the Papal authority with its whole system 
of faith. 

Let us consider these pretensions, one by one, as 
they were made the pretext of religious and civil 
revolution. 

1. It is a standing assertion, disproved many times, 
but still as often reasserted, that the discovery of the 
Bible led to the Reformation. Martin Luther, the 
leader among his fellows, was the happy man who I 
made this discovery. He was a student of the Uni- 
versity of Erfurt, where he had been two years, when 
"one day," says D'Aubigne, "he was opening the 
books in the library, in order to know the names of 
the authors. Books were then rare, and it was to 
him a great privilege to profit by the treasures united 
in this vast collection. One volume which he opened 
in its turn struck his attention. Up to that moment 
he had never seen anything like it. He read the title. 
It was a Bible — a rare book, and unknown at that 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



13 



time. His interest was vividly excited . He is filled 
with astonishment at finding more in this volume than 
those fragments of the Gospels and Epistles which the 
Church had selected to be read to the people on the 
Sundays of the year. Till then he had thought that 
they were the whole word of God ; and behold ! here 
are so many pages, chapters, and books of which he 
had no idea." * "The Bible that had filled him with 
such transport was in Latin. He read and re-read, 
and then, in his surprise and joy, went back to read 
again. The first gleams of a new truth arose in his 
mind. Thus has God caused him to find His holy 
word ! For the first time, perhaps, this precious 
volume has been removed from the place that it occu- 
pied in the library of Erfurt. This book, deposited 
on the unknown shelves of a dark room, is soon to 
become the book of life for a whole nation. The 
Reformation lay hid in that Bible." f The English 
historian Milner repeats the same story, and in 
nearly the same words: u In the second year after 
Luther had entered into the monastery, he acci- 
dentally met with a Latin Bible in the library. It 
proved to him a treasure. Then he first discovered 
that there were more Scripture passages extant than 
those which were read to the people ; for the Scrip- 



* D'Aubigne, Vol. I. p. 197. 



t Ibid., p. 198. 



14 



First Lecture. 



tures were at that time very little known in the 
world." * 

The Rev. Dr. Maitland, a Protestant clergyman, 
thus writes: "I believe that the idea which many 
persons have of ecclesiastical history may be briefly 
stated thus : that the Christian Church was a small, 
scattered, and persecuted flock until the time of Con- 
stantine ; that then, at once, and as if by magic, the 
Roman world became Christian ; that this universal 
Christianity, not being of a very pure, solid, or dura- 
ble nature, melted down into a filthy mass called 
Popery, which held its place during the dark ages, 
until the revival of pagan literature and the conse- 
quent march of intellect sharpened men's wits and 
brought about the Reformation, when it was discov- 
ered that the Pope was Antichrist, and that the saints 
had been in the hands of the little horn predicted by 
the prophet Daniel, for hundreds of ye^rs, without 
knowing so awful a fact or suspecting anything of the 
kind." f 

In connection with this common view of the mid- 
dle ages among Protestants is the almost universal 
opinion that the Bible was nearly unknown, and 
that, discovered by their religious progenitors, it is 
in a special sense their property. They brought it 



* Milner, Vol. IV. p. 324. f Maitland, " Dark Ages," p. 188. 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



15 



into light, and made it the rule of faith and practice. 
But for the labors of the Reformers it would have 
long slumbered in obscurity. So says Martin Luther 
in his 6 'Table-Talk" : "Thirty years ago the Bible 
was an unknown book ; the Prophets were not under- 
stood : it was thought they could not be translated." 

2. The inference from these assertions is that the 
Catholic Church, so long the custodian of the Scrip- 
tures, had suppressed them and prevented their use. 
The principal versions of the Bible were in the Latin 
tongue, and the conclusion is drawn that the people 
were not allowed to have recourse to them, and that 
even the priesthood were restricted in their use. The 
Church was afraid of the Bible and unwilling to ex- 
pose its dogmas to its light. Moreover, the Papal 
authority had by special edict prohibited the common 
reading of the inspired word. Such were the constant 
accusations of the Reformers, while they professed, in 
opposition to Catholic tradition which they despised, 
to rely upon the Holy Scriptures alone as interpreted 
by every individual man. They even claimed that 
the sacred text was free from any obscurity and in- 
telligible to every reader. " Should any one," says 
Luther, "attack you, saying that the Bible is ob- 
scure, or that it should be read with the aid of the 
commentaries of the Fathers, you will reply : This is 
not true, for there never existed on earth a book more 



16 



First Lecture. 



easily intelligible than the Bible." Tyndale, one of 
the most prominent of the English Reformers, de- 
clares " that the abbots took the Scriptures from their 
monks, lest some should bark against them ; and set 
up such long service and singing withal, that they 
• should have no time to read in the Bible but with 
their lips." The following language from a popular 
Protestant sermon is quoted by Maitland in his 
" Dark Ages" : " Sunk in the lowest state of earthly 
depression, pressed by every art and engine of human 
hostility, by the blind hatred of the half -barbarian 
kings of feudal Europe, by the fanatical furies of 
their ignorant people, and, above all, by the great 
spiritual domination, containing in itself a mass of 
solid and despotic strength unequalled in the annals 
of power, vivified and envenomed by a reckless an- 
tipathy unknown in the annals of the passions, what 
had the Scriptures to do but perish? " * There is no 
need to dwell upon this point, inasmuch as the Bible 
was confessedly in the hands of the Church, and the 
responsibility of the alleged suppression of the same 
must be laid at her door. It is even asserted that the 
Papal authority had prohibited the general reading of 
the Scriptures, by a decree of the Sacred Congregation 
of the Index, and that this was the natural expression 



* Maitland, p. 203. 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



of the hostility of the Holy See to the study and 
knowledge of the inspired word. Such allegations 
have been , made in the ears of all Protestants since 
their childhood, and have been almost universally 
received. 

3. On this ignorance of the sacred writings, which 
was so carefully provided for, the whole fabric of 
priestly domination was built. Fearful to meet the 
light of the inspired text, the Pope of Rome hid the 
Bible in the cells of monasteries, or chained it to the 
desks of the churches, where there could be no dan- 
ger of the dissemination of its life-giving truths. 
The alleged suppression of the Scriptures could have 
naturally no other motive. Rome trembled for her 
dominion, and, when the unlucky discovery was made 
by Luther, hastened up all her forces and fought for 
her life, seeing that her hour was come. With the 
free and unrestricted reading of the word of God 
came the hour of liberty from the despotism of priests ; 
and Antichrist, so vividly portrayed in the Apoca- 
lypse, was forced to flee before the unsheathed sword 
of the Spirit. Nations fell away from the Catholic 
Church. Priests and religious embraced the new 
gospel, and the bright light which beamed from the 
sacred text shone upon a restored Christianity in its 
primitive purity. 



18 



First Lecture. 



II. 

We are now to examine in detail these assertions 
and pretensions which not even the disasters of three 
centuries have dissipated. Let us see what the real 
truth is. There is neither time nor space here for 
a full demonstration, but a few words of unquestion- 
ed history will suffice. 

1. Before the date of the Reformation the Holy 
Scriptures were not generally unknown to priests and 
people, but, considering the circumstances of the times, 
were well known and carefully studied. 

Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, in Saxony, in 
the year 1483. He made his profession at the Augus- 
tinian Convent at Erfurt in 1507, and was ordained 
priest. Let us look at the facts in regard to the Scrip- 
tures before the date on which he is said to have made 
his great discovery of the unknown word of God. 
The invention of printing took place in a.d. 1438. 
Before that time the sacred books were all preserved 
in writing. First they were copied on skins duly pre- 
pared. Then they were transcribed on parchment, 
which was first in the shape of rolls, and afterwards 
in the more convenient form of a book. There were 
three celebrated and principal manuscripts : the Alex- 
andrine, the Latin, and the Byzantine. The arrange- 
ment of the Bible in chapters was made by Cardinal 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



19 



Hugo in the thirteenth century. The celebrated Sep- 
tuagint version of the Old Testament was begun in 
the year 285 before Christ. The Latin Vulgate ver- 
sion, which is approved by the Church, dates from 
the year 405. 

Now, before the date of printing, the cost of copy- 
ing the canon of Scripture on parchment was no in- 
considerable sum. It is estimated that the thirty-five 
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven verses 
which it contains would make twelve thousand seven 
hundred and eighty-three folios. This would fill four 
hundred and twenty-seven skins of parchment on 
both sides. The parchment alone would cost about 
four hundred dollars, while the copying would result in 
an expense of six hundred dollars, making the com- 
plete Bible cost at least one thousand dollars. This 
great expense would prevent the universal dissemi- 
nation of the Scriptures as at the present day. 
In spite, however, of all this expense, the sacred 
word was carefully copied and in constant use. 
Perhaps we may say it was more reverenced and 
better understood than even at this day. Merry- 
weather observes : " The Bible, it is true, was an ex- 
pensive book, but it can scarcely be regarded as a 
rare one ; the monastery was indeed poor that had it 
not, and, when once obtained, the monks took care to 
speedily transcribe it. Sometimes they possessed only 



20 



First Lecture. 



detached portions, but when this was the case, they 
generally borrowed of some neighboring and more 
fortunate monastery the missing parts to transcribe, 
and so complete their own copies." * 

Kings and nobles offered the Bible as an appropri- 
ate and generons gift, and bishops were deemed bene- 
factors to their Church by adding it to the library. 
We need only refer to the works of Griesbach, Bent- 
ley, Michaelis, Mill, Simon, Kennicott, Wetstein, 
Blanchini, and Scholz, on the numerous manuscripts 
of the Sacred Scripture. 

The collections of the Bible in the Vatican, Am- 
brosian, and Magliabecchian libraries in Italy, and 
those which France possesses in the Mazarin, St. 
Genevieve, and Royal libraries of Paris, bear witness 
to the wonderful zeal and toil displayed in copying, 
circulating, and interpreting the sacred word. To 
these collections, so celebrated, are to .be added those 
of Venice, Vienna, Stuttgart, Gottingen, as well as 
the Bodleian and British Museum. Nor were these 
copies of the Scriptures wholly in the Latin Vulgate. 
"In 807 Charlemagne caused the whole Bible to be 
translated into French ; in 820 Otfrid, a Benedictine 
monk, composed in the same language a harmony of 
the Four Gospels ; in the same century a version of 

* Merry weather's * 6 Bibliomania in the Middle Ages,'* p. 24 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 21 

the Psalms in French was made by the order of Louis 
le Debonnaire ; in the twelfth century translations of 
the Four Gospels, the Epistles of St. Paul, the Psalms, 
the Book of Job, and some other portions of the 
Bible were made in the diocese of Metz ; in the four- 
teenth century Jean de Yignay translated the Epistles 
and Gospels in the Missal at the request of the Queen 
of France. By command of Charles V. a French 
version of a portion of the Bible was made, a copy of 
which is preserved among the Lansdowne MSS. in the 
British Museum. 

" In the Bibliotheque du Eoi at Paris are several 
old French versions; of the twelfth century three copies 
of the Psalms, and of the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries nearly sixty different versions, comprising 
translations of the entire Bible and of different books. 
Among the Cotton MSS. in the British Museum we 
find a copy of the Gospels in French verse, and a har- 
mony of the Gospels which belonged to Canute; and 
among the Haiieian MSS. in the same collection are 
two copies of a French translation of a portion of the 
Bible, from Genesis to the end of the Psalms, and five 
French versions of the Psalms, two of which are ac- 
companied by English translations. 

" Versions in Anglo- Saxon were made by various 
hands. King Alfred is said to have translated the 
whole Bible. Aldhelm translated the Psalms ; iElfric 



22 



First Lecture. 



rendered the first seven books of the Old Testament 
and part of Job ; and Beda translated the whole 
Bible, having completed his task but a few moments 
before he expired."* Buckingham, in his account of 
the Bible in the middle ages, gives notice of the 
translation of the Scriptures into sixteen modern lan- 
guages, all made between the fourth and the fifteenth 
century, and these must have been made for the use 
of the laity, since the Scriptures were invariably read 
by the clergy in the Latin tongue, then the universal 
language of learned Christendom. 

After the invention of printing in 1438 the edi- 
tions of the inspired writings became very numerous. 
Hallam proves that the Bible was the first book 
printed, and it was soon published in nearly every lan- 
guage, f The learned Protestant bibliographer, Dib- 
din, says : " From the year 1462 to the end of the fif- 
teenth century the editions of the Latin Bible may be 
considered literally innumerable, and, generally speak- 
ing, only repetitions of the same text." X He enume- 
rates the following editions : at Mentz in 1455 ; at Bam- 
berg, 1461 ; at Rome, 1471 ; Venice, 1476 ; Naples, 1476 ; 
in Bohemia, 1488 ; in Poland, 1563 ; in Iceland, 1551 ; 
in Russia, 1581 ; in France, 1475 ; in Holland, 1477 ; 

* Buckingham, " Bible in the Middle Ages," pp. 40-44. 

f " History of Literature," I. 96. 

X Dibdin's " Library Companion," p. 15. 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



23 



in England, 1535 ; in Spain, 1477. Celebrated editions 
appeared at Bologna in 1482 ; at Soncino in 1488 ; at 
Brescia in 1494 ; and at Bamberg in 1518. The edi- 
tion of Brescia is the one which Luther is said to have 
used. Cardinal Ximenes undertook the expensive and 
unprecedented task of printing a polyglot. This work 
was begun in 1504 and terminated in 1517. This poly- 
glot contains an independent Hebrew text, which be- 
came the basis of several other editions, as also the 
Septuagint, the Vulgate, and a Chaldee paraphrase. 
The New Testament contains the Greek text and the 
Latin Vulgate. This great work was dedicated to 
Pope Leo X. and is in six folio volumes. The Ant- 
werp Polyglot appeared in 1569, in eight volumes 
folio, at the expense of Philip II. of Spain. The 
Parisian Polyglot, in seven languages, appeared in 
1645. 

As to the translations into the modern languages to 
which we have already referred, it may be well to re- 
sume here that, after the invention of printing, nearly 
every country in Europe soon possessed an edition in 
its vernacular. 

In Germany the first printed Bible extant is that of 
Nuremberg, in 1447, and a second appeared in 1466. 
The edition of 1466 was so frequently and rapidly re- 
printed that, prior to the publication of Luther's 
Bible, it had been issued no fewer than sixteen times, 



24 



First Lecture. 



once at Strasburg, five times at Nuremberg, and ten 
times at Augsburg. Three distinct editions also ap- 
peared at Wittenberg in 1470, 1483, and 1490, so that 
before Luther was heard of, or even born, the Bible 
must have been well known and well read. 

In France the " Bible Historiale" of Des Moulins 
was published about 1478, and was reprinted sixteen 
times prior to 1546. Lefevre published an edition 
of the Scriptures in 1512. According to Simon, edi- 
tion after edition appeared, among which are the well- 
known translations of Be Sacy, Corbin, Amelotte, 
Maralles, Godeau, and Hure. 

In the Flemish language the first printed Bible is 
that published at Cologne in 1475. It was reprinted 
at least seven times before 1530. 

In Spain the translation ascribed to St. Vincent 
Ferrer was printed at Valencia in 1478 with the for- 
mal permission of the Inquisition, and reprinted in 
1515, and of it numerous editions were published at 
Antwerp, Barcelona, and Madrid. 

In Italy, in 1290, Jacobus a Voragine, Archbishop 
of Genoa, published the entire Bible in Italian. An- 
other translation, prepared by the Camaldolese monk 
Nicholas Malermi, w T as printed at Venice in 1471, and 
again in Rome in the same year. It was so eagerly 
purchased that before the year 1525 no fewer than 
thirteen editions of it had issued from the press. 



Pretensions of tee Reformers. 



25 



They were all published with the permission of the 
Inquisition, as were also eight other editions which 
were printed before 1567. 

In England the translations of the Protestants, Tyn- 
dale and Coverdale, bear the date of 1535. The edi- 
tion called the " Bishops' Bible" appeared in 1568. 
In 1582 the New Testament was published at Kheims, 
and the Old Testament was completed at Douay in 
1609. This is the authorized English translation 
among the Catholics of England and the United 
States. Since that date the editions of this Bible, 
with various corrections and emendations, have been 
very numerous.* 

The version of King James, published 1611, is the 
one generally used among Protestants. 

We have, then, conclusively proved that the Bible 
was generally known and circulated before the time of 
Luther, not only in the original and Latin text, but 
also in the vernacular of the principal countries of 
Europe. Any one must have been lamentably igno- 
rant who did not know the Scriptures and their princi- 
pal lessons. These lessons were taught to the people 
constantly, and impressed with authority upon their 
hearts. As for Martin Luther, he was instructed by 
intelligent and pious parents, and is said to have made 

* Waterworth, " English Ref orraation, " chap. x. 



26 



First Lecture. 



great proficiency in his studies at Magdeburg and 
Eisenach, and at the University of Erfurt. There he 
applied himself to learn the philosophy of the middle 
ages in the writings of Occam, Scotus, Thomas Aqui- 
nas, and Bonaventure. " These writings," to use the 
words of Dr. Maitland, "are made of the Scrip- 
tures. These writers not only constantly quoted the 
Scriptures, and appealed to them as authorities on all 
occasions, but they thought and spoke the thoughts, 
w^ords, and phrases of the Bible as the natural mode 
of expressing themselves."* One can hardly under- 
stand these great writers without a certain familiarity 
with the sacred text. Moreover, Luther had made 
his vows as an Augustinian monk, and was ordained 
priest. The preparation for the sacred office of priest- 
hood, not to speak of his obligations as a religious, 
required patient and laborious study of the inspired 
word. In addition to this, the breviary, which he was 
bound to recite, consists almost entirely of the Psalms 
of David and other quotations from the sacred books. 
Ignorance, therefore, of the Scriptures in his case was 
impossible, and is only a false pretence, too baseless 
to be accepted or repeated by any intelligent mind. 
The most wonderful expositions of the word of God 
were written before the Reformation, and we must ad- 
mit that in deep and devout study the middle ages 

* Maitland, p. 470. 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



27 



have exceeded onr own. Luther, by position and 
education, had especial advantages which are not the 
portion of every one, even in onr own age. 

Even Zwingiius, who made many false boasts for 
himself, says to Luther: " You are unjust in putting 
forth the boastful claim of dragging the Bible from 
beneath the dusty benches of the schools. You for 
get that we have gained a knowledge of the Scrip- 
tures through the translations of others. You are 
very well aware, with all your blustering, that previ- 
ously to your time there existed a host of scholars 
who, in Biblical knowledge and philological attain- 
ments, were incomparably your superiors."* 

2. In face of these facts it seems hardly necessary 
to reply to the accusation that the Catholic Church 
had suppressed the Bible and prevented its general 
use. To the care and zeal of the Church, as we have 
seen, the Sacred Scriptures owe their preservation in 
the midst of all dangers, wars, conflagrations, and 
torrents of barbarian and Moslem fury. We have 
briefly given testimony of the patient labor and anx- 
ious solicitude with which her priesthood and reli- 
gious devoted themselves to the copying of the in- 
spired writings, and the study and exposition of their 
meaning. In her seminaries the candidates for the 



* Alzog, III. 49. 



28 



First Lecture. 



sacerdotal office were diligently trained in the know- 
ledge of the divine word, and her monasteries were 
the homes of sacred learning. Careful selections from 
the Bible were read to the people on every Sunday 
and festival during the year. 

There is no* possible denial of these facts, and there- 
fore the advocates of the Reformation resort to two 
assertions which are plain evasions of the truth. 

They say that the Bible was preserved in the Latin 
tongue only, and that the Church, by decree of the 
Sacred Congregation of the Index, had prohibited its 
general use. Inconsistent as these accusations are with 
the whole policy of the Apostolic See, they yet de- 
serve here a brief notice. 

We have already seen how carefully, by the solici- 
tude of the Church, the original manuscripts were 
preserved and copied. These manuscripts were of 
course in the language in which they were written. 
The preservation of this text was in the highest degree 
necessary. The translation into the Latin tongue was 
made while that language was a living one, and well 
known among all the educated classes. Even to the 
reign of Charlemagne, in the beginning of the ninth 
century, the Latin language was that which was most 
generally understood and spoken in Europe. Down 
to the sixteenth century, and even afterwards, it was 
the only language of literature, of theology, of medi- 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 29 

cine, and of legislation. Tlie common people of Italy, 
Spain, Portugal, and France could understand it 
without difficulty. Most of tlie modern languages of 
Europe were formed from it, and in Hungary it had 
been spoken by the people for many centuries. It 
was taught in every school in Christendom, and was 
the medium through which other branches of learn- 
ing were made known. Under these circumstances 
the publication of the Bible in the Latin tongue was 
the very best way to make it generally known and uni- 
formly understood. No language so universal as the 
Latin then existed, either among scholars or among 
those w r ho possessed the rudiments of education. 

But we have already seen that long before Luther's 
time the Scriptures were translated into the living 
tongues of Europe. Almost every nation possessed 
a version in its own vernacular. 6 ' Before the publi- 
cation of Luther's translation there had appeared in 
Germany no less than three distinct versions of the 
whole Bible, the last of which had passed through at 
least seventeen different editions. Add to these the 
three editions of Wittenberg, and- we find that the 
Bible had already been reprinted in the German lan- 
guage no less than twenty times before the version of 
Luther appeared."* Comment on these facts seems 



* Abp. Spalding, "Ref.," Vol. I. p. 296. 



30 



First Lecture. 



superfluous. There were at least seventy editions of 
the Scriptures in the vernacular tongues before Luther 
had circulated one copy of his German Bible. Yet 
lie says in his " Table-Talk 55 : " Thirty years ago the 
Bible was an unknown book ; the Prophets were not 
understood ; it was thought that they could not be 
translated. I was twenty years old before I saw the 
Scriptures. 55 

But notwithstanding these facts, "the Church, 
after all this labor to preserve and make known the 
inspired word, had by decree prohibited its use 55 ! 
This would be a singular contradiction, and, if it could 
be true, would convict the Church of the most stupid 
folly. Why did the ecclesiastical authorities permit 
and encourage the publication of a book not allowed 
to general use ? What became of all the editions in 
the vernacular of different nations ? They were not 
for the use of priests exclusively, who were accus- 
tomed to the study of the Latin Vulgate. For whom, 
then, were these different translations, unless for the 
people, who must have paid for their publication 1 
And where is this decree prohibiting the reading of 
the Bible ? Let us look at the facts of the case. 
There is nothing to be gained by misrepresentation or 
falsehood. First, it was the care of the ecclesiastical 
authorities to guard against the circulation of errone- 
ous or inaccurate editions. It will be admitted by 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



31 



every one that any corruption or mistranslation would 
be a very serious matter. The change of a word even 
might alter the whole sense of a phrase. The publi- 
cation of an incorrect translation would not be the 
publication of the word of God. The Church was 
therefore bound, as far as was in her power, to pro- 
vide against this great evil. Secondly, as far as any 
decree prohibiting the general reading of the Bible is 
concerned, there is nothing in all history that bears 
any semblance of the same before the close of the 
Council of Trent in 1563. Then a rule of discipline 
was established which 66 permits the reading of the 
Bible translated into the vulgar tongues by Catholic 
authors to those only whom the bishop, with the 
advice of the parish priests or confessors, shall judge 
that such reading will prove profitable unto an in- 
crease of faith and piety." The reason assigned for 
this rule was " that experience had made it manifest 
that the permission to read the Bible indiscriminately 
in the vulgar tongues had, from the rashness of men, 
produced more harm than good." This regulation of 
discipline was temporary, and designed to meet the 
evils existing during the confusion of the times. It 
was a rule " which was not everywhere received in 
practice, and which has long since ceased to be of 
binding force on any part of the Catholic Church. 
The present discipline requires only that the version 



32 



First Lecture. 



be approved, and illustrated by commentaries from 
the Fathers and other Catholic writers. Pope Pius 
VI., in a letter written April 1, 1778, to Anthony- 
Martini, the translator of the Italian version, praises 
him for his undertaking, and adds these words, ' ' The 
Scriptures are the most abundant sources, which ought 
to be left open to every one to draw from them purity 
of morals and of doctrine." * At the time of the 
Reformation, people inflamed with the infection of the 
times, seemed to be seized with a religious madness, 
and simple persons were in constant danger from fan- 
atical teachers who, in their enthusiasm, perverted the 
sacred text to the destruction of all faith and piety. 
Preachers and apostate monks appeared in the public 
places, exciting revolution and leading away the 
unwary. As an illustration of what so often dis- 
graced the whole Protestant movement, " Caiistadt, 
at Wittenberg, went about at the head of a mob de- 
molishing altars, overturning statues, and destroying 
pictures and sacred images, and, to put the crown on 
all his sacrilegious conduct, administered the Lord' s 
Supper to all who chose to approach. Prophets arose 
on every side, and the Anabaptists made their fol- 
lowers wild with frenzy and illusion. Carlstadt car- 
ried his zeal against human science so far that he cast 

* Archbishop Spalding, I. 305. Archbishop Kenrick, " Theol. Dog.," 
1.429. 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 33 

into the flames the text-books brought him by stu- 
dents from all quarters, saying that henceforth the 
Bible alone should be read among men. Under pretext 
of this principle, that the Bible alone was sufficient, 
he went through the streets of Wittenberg with the 
Scriptures in his hand, stopping the passers-by, and 
entering the shops of the mechanics, to ask the mean- 
ing of difficult passages, as from persons whose 
minds had not been warped by the sophistry of 
science. The students passed beyond the control of 
the authorities, and it was feared the university 
would be closed. Even the heresiarchs were startled 
at the excesses to which their teachings had led, and 
began to grow uneasy, lest they might serve as a pre- 
text to the Duke of Saxony for putting a stop to any 
further attempts at reforming the Church." * The 
Protestants themselves were forced in self-defence 
to admit the evils which sprang from their doctrine, 
and attribute to. the false interpretation of the Bible 
the controversies and fanaticism which threatened 
the foundations of society. "We thought,'' says a 
learned Protestant, "that we were gaining a victory 
over the Eoman Church by the free circulation of the 
Bible. But the Church herself has conquered by its 
careful prohibition of the common reading of the ver- 



Alzog, III. 54. 



34 



First Lecture. 



nacular translations. For it is manifest that her pro- 
hibition is not absolute but relative. Relative pro- 
hibitions of this kind are nothing but a prudent 
circumspection against unfaithful versions, and that 
arbitrary interpretation which opens the way to errors 
of every kind; against the practice of exposing the 
inspired word without direction to the inexperience of 
youth and the intemperance of a corrupt imagination 
by which the sacred books, whose nature demands 
maturity of mind and purity of heart, are produc- 
tive of great evil."* 

When these facts are taken into consideration, the 
action of the Catholic Church is fully explained, and 
has been even approved by candid Protestants. "It 
is," says Archbishop Spalding, "plainly a slander to 
assert that she forbids the reading of the Scriptures." 
Translations and expositions have been published in 
every country, and are easy of access to all who seek 
them. "In the United States Catholics have pub- 
lished at least as many editions of the Bible as any 
Protestant sect. These have appeared in every form, 
♦and may be had in every Catholic bookstore in the 
country, and are in the possession of most Catholic 
families, "f 

3. It seems now almost superfluous to reply at any 



* Abauzit ap. Perrone, IL 1193. f Archbishop Spalding, I. 306. 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



35 



length to the third pretence of the Reformers, that 
the whole system of the Catholic faith was built upon 
the ignorance of the Scriptures. 

The argument of these lectures will show how 
plainly the inspired word supports the creed of the 
Church, and how the only existing infallible witness 
of truth maintains the inspiration of the sacred text. 
The Holy See would have had no motive to keep in 
darkness the Bible, which, according to its judgment, 
sustains by divine authority all its claims. And this 
interpretation, in accordance with Catholic tradition, 
is the uniform voice of all Christian antiquity. 
" Learn also diligently," says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, 
a.d. 345, "and from the Church, which are the books 
of the Old Testament and which of the New, and read 
not to me anything of the uncertain books. Those 
only meditate on earnestly which we read confidently 
even in the Church. Far wiser than thou, and more 
devout, were the apostles and ancient bishops, the 
rulers of the Church, who have handed them down. 
Take thou and hold, as a learner, and in profession, 
that faith only which is now delivered to thee by the 
Church and sustained by all the Scripture." * " To 
whom," says Tertullian, a.d. 195, " belongs the very 
faith? Whose are the Scriptures? By whom, and 

* St. Cyril, Catech., §§ 33, 35. 



36 



First Lecture. 



through whom, and when, and to whom was that dis- 
cipline delivered whereby men become Christians % 
For wherever the true Christian rule and faith shall 
be shown, there will be the true Scriptures, and the 
true expositions, and all the true Christian tradi- 
tions.' 5 * Every doctrine of the Catholic Church de- 
nied by Protestants has been the ancient and un- 
changing doctrine of the Christian fathers, who in 
their controversies with heretics have always appealed 
to the testimony of the Scriptures. 

What we have already said confutes the accusation 
of wilful ignorance ; as we have abundantly shown 
that the Church in every way encouraged the know- 
ledge and study of the inspired w r ord, which she pre- 
served and delivered unto the successive ages of men. 
In real understanding of the Scriptures and devout 
study of their meaning the days before the Reforma- 
tion far exceed our own ; and of the learning and 
profundity of the great writers of the middle age 
every scholar must stand in admiration. They are 
the fountains of thought from which we must draw, 
for the comprehension of the spirit and letter of the 
sacred text. ' ' The religious of the middle ages gave 
their whole life to the labor of copying and translat- 
ing the Bible into the vulgar tongues of various na- 

* Tertullian, " De Praescr.," n. 15. 



Pretensions of the Reforiuers. 37 

tions, that the unlearned might become the readers of 
the word of God. In the cloister they studied the 
Scriptures and elucidated them by their careful com- 
mentaries ; in their schools they taught their pupils 
to understand them ; in the universities their lectures 
embodied the results of their zealous studies and 
prayerful meditations ; in their libraries the Bible lay 
open to the search of all who sought to scan the sa- 
cred record ; in their churches Bibles w T ere placed for 
the use of the laity, and concordances attached to 
facilitate their researches ; when they mounted the 
pulpit it was to inculcate upon their hearers the duty 
of reading and meditating upon the Scriptures, and 
to preach those noble sermons which are gemmed with 
quotations from the inspired writings, and in which 
the language and imagery of Scripture appear in every 
line. No sooner had human skill devised a means of 
book-multiplication, whose rapidity of action sur- 
passed the boldest dream of the ancient copyists, 
than they engaged at once its co-operation, and caused 
the Bible to issue in vast abundance from the press, 
in almost every tongue spoken in the Christian 
world." * 

If it be still said that the Catholic Church is op- 
posed to the diffusion of the Bible, there can be no 



* Buckingham, p. 69. 



38 



First Lecture. 



chance of persuading those who are determined to be- 
lieve a lie. Yet weak must be the cause which rests 
upon the propagation of falsehood. 

If it be said that the Church opposes the action of 
modern Protestant Bible societies as dangerous to 
faith and morals, the answer is obvious. She opposes 
the circulation of any version not approved and ex- 
amined by her pastors. And she objects in the 
strongest terms to the principle maintained by these 
associations, that the circulation of the Scriptures, 
without note or explanation, is the proper way to 
evangelize the world. Of this principle and its re- 
sults we shall have more to say when we speak of 
the Protestant use of the word of God. Let the 
tree be judged by its fruits, and the principle by its 
effects. 

Before closing this lecture we will, however, refer 
for a moment to the fact that the triumph of the Re- 
formation led to the restriction of the Scriptures. 
The statute of Henry VIII. of England enacted that 
" no women not of gentle or noble birth, nor journey- 
men, artificers, or apprentices, should read the Bible 
or the New Testament in English, to themsel ves or oth- 
ers, openly or privately." And even Martin Luther, 
with all his inconsistencies, pays this tribute to the 
Church : "It was an effect of God's power that in the 
Papacy should have remained the text of the holy 



Pretensions of the Reformers. 



39 



Gospel, which it was the custom to read from the pul- 
pit in the vernacular tongue of every nation." 

We believe, then, that we have in this brief lecture 
exposed and answered the pretensions of the Protest- 
ant Reformers. If the pretext for their revolutionary 
movement be absolutely false, little can be expected 
from their erratic and inconsistent course. No solid 
foundation can rest upon an untruth. The shifting 
sands of unbelief are firmer than falsehood. But we 
would look for the logical result which history pre- 
sents to us, and expect to see the sacred word of God 
hurled down from its high place, its inspired text mu- 
tilated by human caprice, and its divine authority 
denied among men. Fearful is the unhallowed touch 
of man, sad the exercise of his liberty, when the 
things of God are exposed to the fury of unbelief. 
One lie propagates another, and falsehood of every 
kind arrays itself against the divine majesty whose 
essence is Truth. 



Lecture Second. 



THE PROTESTANT DOCTRINE CONCERN- 
ING THE BIBLE. 



Lecture Second. 



THE PROTESTANT DOCTRINE CONCERNING THE BIBLE. 



" No prophecy of Scripture is made by private interpretation. For 
prophecy came not by the will of man at any time : but the holy men 
of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost."— 2 St. Peter i. 20, 21. 

T THINK it will be confessed that all Protestants 
who call themselves Christians profess in some 
way to draw their doctrine from the Scriptures, which 
they believe to come from God. There have been 
many changes in their doctrines ; and some, who vin- 
dicate to themselves the Christian name, deny the in- 
spiration of the Bible either in whole or in part. 
Still, with more or less unanimity, they contend that 
their religion is a Scriptural one, that to them in a 
peculiar sense belong the inspired writings, because 
for them they have thrown everything else away, even 
the church, priesthood, and altar. Rigidly, they have 
nothing left them but the Bible, and so their faith 
and hope are purely Biblical. 

43 



44 



Second Lecture. 



It will be the purpose of this short discourse to ex- 
amine their doctrine, and see how it will bear the test 
of logic and of fact. We will demonstrate that in 
rigor of truth they have no Bible, and are truly be- 
reft of their only hope. Every system must bear the 
test of logic, or fail by self-contradiction. Facts are 
sterner teachers than the masters of the schools, and 
no one can contravene their lessons. We commend, in 
the spirit of Christian charity, the argument of this 
lecture to the sincere who seek for truth, and are will- 
ing for its sake to sacrifice all earthly considerations. 

The plan of our discussion leads us to examine, 
first, the Protestant doctrine concerning the Bible, 
and, secondly, to show its absurdity or impossibility 
in logic and in fact. 

L 

The doctrine of Protestants is that the inspired 
Scriptures are the sole rule of faith, as interpreted by 
the individual. 

We believe we do not in any way misrepresent their 
belief ; and for the vindication of our statement we 
shall quote their own authorities. Thus Dr. Schaff, 
professor of Biblical literature in the Union Theologi- 
cal Seminary, New York, says : "The various Evan- 
gelical Protestant churches, viewed as distinct eccle- 
siastical organizations and creeds, take their rise di- 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



45 



rectly or indirectly from the sixteenth, century ; but 
their principles are rooted and grounded in the JSTew 
Testament. " " The absolute supremacy and sufficien- 
cy of Christ and His Gospel, in doctrine and life, in 
faith and practice, is the animating principle, the 
beating heart of the Reformation, and the essential 
unity of Protestantism to this day." " The objec- 
tive, generally called the formal, principle of Protes- 
tantism maintains the absolute sovereignty of the 
Bible, as the only infallible rule of the Christian faith 
and life, in opposition to the Roman doctrine of the 
Bible and tradition as co-ordinate rules of faith." 
" Protestantism is the religion of freedom; Roman- 
ism the religion of authority." " Protestantism is 
the Christianity of the Bible ; Romanism that of tra- 
dition." * This " Scripture principle" is the charac- 
teristic, and even foundation, of all the Protestant 
creeds. u The Augsburg Confession, which is the 
first and most important of all the Lutheran symbols, 
does not mention the Bible-principle at all, but it is 
based upon it throughout. The Articles of Smalcald 
mention it incidentally,* and the Form of Concord more 
explicitly. But the Reformed Confessions have a 
separate article concerning the Holy Scripture, as the 
only rule of faith and discipline, and put it at the head, 



* Dr. Schaff, " Hist, of Creeds," I. 205, 208. 



46 



Second Lecture. 



sometimes with a full list of the canonical books." * 
We will proceed, then, to quote the exact language of 
some of the principal Protestant articles of faith 
which set forth this doctrine. The Form of Concord, 
a.d. 1576, as its name imports, was designed to settle 
controversies which arose among the divines of the 
Augsburg Confession. 

Its first article is : " We believe, confess, and teach 
that the only rule and norm according to which all 
dogmas and all doctors ought to be esteemed and 
judged, is no other whatever than the prophetic and 
apostolic writings both of the Old and the New Testa- 
ment." 

The Confessions of Berne, a.d. 1528, declare that 
"the Church of Christ cannot make laws and com- 
mands which are not in the word of God, ' ' and that 
"all traditions called ecclesiastical do not oblige us 
except they are founded and taught in the Scriptures." 

The Helvetic Confessions, a.d. 1566, teach that 
"the Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ment are the true word of God, and have sufficient 
authority in and of themselves, and not from men, 
since God Himself still speaks to us through them as 
he did to the fathers, prophets, and apostles! They 
contain all that is necessary to a saving faith and a 



* Dr. Schaff, " Hist, of Creeds," I. 216. 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



47 



holy life." "We acknowledge only that interpreta- 
tion as true and correct which is fairly derived from 
the spirit and language of the Scriptures themselves, 
in accordance with the circumstances, and in harmony 
with other and plainer passages. We do not despise 
the interpretation of the Greek and Latin fathers, and 
the teaching of councils, but subordinate them to the 
Scriptures ; honoring them as far as they agree with 
the Scriptures, and modestly dissenting from them 
when they go beyond or against the Scriptures. In 
matters of faith we cannot admit any other judge 
than God himself, who through His word tells us 
what is true and what is false." 

The French Confession, a.d. 1559, gives the list of 
the canonical books which it receives, and says : "We 
know these books to be canonical and the sure rule of 
our faith, not so much by the common accord and 
consent of the Church as by the testimony and inward 
illumination of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to 
distinguish them from other ecclesiastical books, upon 
which, however useful, we cannot found any articles 
of faith. We believe that the word contained in 
these books has proceeded from God, and receives its 
authority from Him alone, and not from men. Whence 
it follows that no authority, whether of antiquity, or 
custom, or numbers, or human wisdom, or judgments, 
or decrees, or councils, or visions, or miracles^ should 



48 



Second Lecture. 



be opposed to these Holy Scriptures, but, on the con- 
trary, should be examined, regulated, and reformed 
according to them." 

The same declaration is made by the Belgic Confes- 
sion, a.d. 1561: "We receive all these books, and 
these only, as holy and canonical, for the regulation, 
foundation, and confirmation of our faith ; believ- 
ing, without any doubt, all things contained in them, 
not so much because the Church receives and ap- 
proves them as such, but more especially because the 
Holy Ghost witnesseth in our hearts that they are 
from God, whereof they carry the evidence in them- 
selves." u We believe that these Holy Scriptures 
fully contain the will of God, and that whatsoever man 
ought to believe unto salvation is sufficiently taught 
therein." " Therefore we reject with all our hearts 
whatsoever doth not agree with this infallible rule." 

The same doctrine is taught in the Scotch Confes- 
sion, a.d. 1560: " All things necessary to salvation are 
sufficiently expressed in the Holy Scriptures." 

The Articles of the Church of England, a.d. 1571, 
assert that u Holy Scripture containeth all things ne- 
cessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read 
therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be re- 
quired of any man that it should be believed as an 
article of the faith, or be thought requisite or neces- 
sary to salvation." 



The Protestant Doctrine. 49 

The Irish Protestant Convocation, a.d. 1615, de- 
clares, ' 6 the ground of our religion and the rule of 
faith and all-saving truth is the word of God. The 
Holy Scriptures contain all things necessary to salva- 
tion, and are able to instruct sufficiently in all points 
of faith that we are bound to believe." 

The Westminster Confession, a.d. 1647, teaches that 
"the Scriptures are given by inspiration of God, to 
be the rule of faith and life." " The infallible rule 
of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself." 
The same doctrine is contained in the Westminster 
Catechism : " The word of God which is contained in 
the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament is 
the only rule to direct us how we may enjoy and glo- 
rify Him." 

To come to still more recent times, the declaration of 
the Congregational Churches of England and Wales 
sets forth that "the Scriptures of the Old Testament, 
as received by the Jews ; and the books of the New 
Testament, as received by the primitive Christians, are 
divinely inspired and of supreme authority." 

The National Congregational Council of the United 
States, at Oberlin, a.d. 1871, teaches that "the Holy 
Scriptures are the sufficient and only infallible rule 
of religious faith and practice." 

The Baptist Confession, at New Hampshire, a.d. 
1833, proposes "the Holy Bible, written by men di- 



50 



Second Lecture. 



vinely inspired, as the supreme standard by which all 
human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried." 

The same doctrine is asserted, and in nearly the 
same words, by the Free-will Baptists, a.d. 1834. 

The Evangelical Free Church of Geneva, a.d. 1848, 
has this first article: "We believe that the Holy 
Scriptures are entirely inspired of God in all their 
parts, and that they are the only and infallible rule 
of faith." 

The Methodist Articles of Religion, a.d. 1784, con- 
tain in regard to the Scriptures the exact words of the 
Church of England which we have already quoted. 

The Reformed Episcopal Church, a.d. 1875, reasserts 
the same doctrine, and adds that "the Scripture not 
only contains the oracles of God, but it is itself the 
very oracles of God." 

The doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Alliance, 
a.d. 1846, adopted in the American branch a.d. 1867, 
sets forth "the divine inspiration, authority, and 
sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures." 

These quotations are sufficient to demonstrate that 
it is the Protestant doctrine that the Holy Scriptures 
are the sole rule of faith. 

That, according to this doctrine, they are to be in- 
terpreted by the individual, and not by any authority 
external to himself, appears to be abundantly mani- 
fest 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



51 



First, Protestants admit no authority which is in- 
fallible except the Scriptures ; and no fallible autho- 
rity can dictate to the conscience of any one. In this 
point all men are equal, and God only can reveal His 
will to any man. Every one may gather what assist- 
ance he can in the interpretation of the inspired 
word, but he only can decide for himself the meaning 
of the sacred text. This proposition needs no demon- 
stration. "The Bible is an infallible authority, and 
speaks for itself. There is no other infallible voice to 
which man may listen." This doctrine is directly as- 
serted in all the Confessions, which declare the Bible 
to be the only rule of faith. But these Confessions 
go so far as to expressly charge the Church with 
error, to deny her authority, and to reject the weight 
of tradition. The Form of Concord expresses its 
view of tradition when it declares that the "Holy 
Scriptures are the only judge, norm, and rule accord- 
ing to which, as by the only touchstone, all doctrines 
are to be examined. But the other symbols {creeds) 
and writings of the fathers do not possess the autho- 
rity of a judge." 

The Second Helvetic Confession "rejects human 
traditions which, although clothed with specious 
titles, as if they were divine and apostolical, yet dif- 
fer from the word written." The Scotch Confession 
denies the authority of the Church in regard to the 



52 



Second Lecture. 



Scriptures, and asserts that all councils are to be tried 
by the plain word of God. It also declares that 
some of the General Councils have erred in matters 
of great weight and importance. The Church of 
England charges the whole Church of Christ with 
error when it asserts that "the church of Jerusalem, 
Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome has erred in matters 
of faith," and propounds the doctrine that "the 
Church cannot decree anything contrary to the writ- 
ten word of God, or so expound one place of Scrip- 
ture that it be repugnant to another.''' This article, 
which expresses the general belief of Protestants, 
assumes that the whole Church may fall into error, 
and that its interpretation of .Scripture, if such be at- 
tempted, is to be subjected to the individual, who will 
receive or reject it, according as he finds it consonant 
or discordant with his sense of the inspired text. 
There is no other arbiter but the judgment of every 
individual man. According to the same Church of 
England, General Councils are subjected to the will 
of princes, and, while they have erred in things per- 
taining to God, are also liable to err, so that "the 
things ordained by them have neither strength nor 
authority, unless it be declared that they be taken 
out of Holy Scripture." 

Tt is hardly necessary to multiply testimonies upon 
this point, since all Protestants will agree that the 



The Protestant Doctrine, 



53 



Church has no authority to interpret Scripture for 
any one, and that councils and tradition are only hu- 
man in their character, and therefore liable to err and 
exposed to change. There then remains for mankind 
but one infallible authority, namely, that of the 
Bible, which is to be given to every one, that he may 
read and judge for himself the voice of inspiration. 

But, secondly, the Protestant Confessions directly 
assert the right and duty of private judgment, and 
declare that the reading of the Scriptures is the one 
way of the revelation of divine truth. 

Thus the Belgic Confession, already quoted, founds 
the belief in the inspiration of God' s word on the in- 
ternal evidence of the books and the witness of the 
Holy Ghost in the individual heart. This evidence 
is wholly subjective, and peculiar to each one, who, if 
he receive the Bible as divine, must do so on such tes- 
timony of the Holy Ghost to himself. If this be true 
of the inspiration of the sacred books, it is d fortiori 
much more true of their meaning. The whole ques- 
tion of Scripture, the only infallible rule, is submitted 
to the judgment of each individual man. 

The Westminster Confession speaks in plain words : 
"The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is 
the Scripture itself." " The supreme judge by which 
all controversies of religion are to be determined, and 
all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers. 



54: 



Second Lecture. 



doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be exam- 
ined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no 
other than the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture." 
And "our full persuasion and assurance of the infal- 
lible truth and divine authority of the Scriptures is 
from the inward work of the Holy Ghost, bearing 
witness by and with the word in our hearts." 

The doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Alliance 
among all orthodox Protestants asserts " the right 
and duty of private judgment in the interpretation 
of the Scriptures." 

The Society of Friends, with perfect consistency, 
make the Holy Spirit, in His inward operation 
upon the individual soul, the primary rule, and the 
Scriptures the secondary rule of faith. " They are 
to be esteemed a secondary rule, subordinate to the 
Spirit, from which they have all their excellency and 
certainty ; for as by the inward testimony of the 
Spirit we do alone truly know them, so they testify 
that the Spirit is that guide by which the saints are 
led into all truth." 

These doctrinal statements flow directly from the 
fundamental principle of Protestantism as asserted 
by the fathers of the Reformation. They were obliged 
to deny the authority of the Church, else they could 
in no way justify their schism. They were forced to 
throw all upon the work of God in the individual 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



55 



conscience, else they could not free themselves from 
the obligation of the received Christian faith. Accord- 
ingly, they represented all human concurrence in the 
work of salvation not only as unnecessary but as im- 
possible, and proposed the idea that whoever address- 
ed himself immediately to the Bible obtained an im- 
mediate knowledge of its contents. They gave every- 
thing to the subjectivity of the believer. So Luther 
declares "that the believer is the freest judge of all 
his teachers, since he is inwardly instructed by God 
alone." * And Zwinglius says, " The sheep of God 
follow the word of Go$ alone, w^hich can in nowise de- 
ceive"; and he compares u the word of Scripture to 
the Word of God, by whom all things were created out 
of nothing." " To explain the mode of operation of 
the divine word, he appeals to that internal word 
which came to the prophets of the old covenant, and 
which, without the aid of human reflection and men- 
tal activity, took possession of those to whom it was 
addressed, and brought them under subjection." f 
" The believer," said Luther, "is internally taught 
by God alone." 



* Luther, " Inst.," II. 584 f Moehler's " Symbolism," 385. 



56 



Second Lecture. 



II. 

We proceed now to show the absurdity of this doc- 
trine, and to demonstrate that Protestants, tried by 
this test, have never had a Bible, and can never have 
one ; and, secondly, that, taking one against the logic 
of their own faith, it proves of no value to them. 

The argument is very simple and unanswerable. 

1. The Bible is a collection of books which are in- 
spired by the Holy Ghost. It differs from all other 
books in this respect, that its words come from the 
work of the Spirit of God upon .human hearts. There 
is no need to discuss this point, because all Protestants 
who receive the Scriptures acknowledge them to come 
from God, and that their spiritual and moral teach- 
ings are of divine authority. Now, the Bible can- 
not prove itself, nor vindicate its own character ; 
and two things are absolutely necessary that it 
may be recognized as the word of God. The au- 
thenticity of the writings must be rigidly demon- 
strated, and their inspiration established beyond 
all possibility of doubt. And this must be done by 
each individual, who can conscientiously in no way 
rid himself of this responsibility. Let it be under- 
stood that the reading of the Bible is the only way of 
knowing divine truth revealed, and therefore the only 
way of salvation. It is necessary, therefore, for the 



The Protestant Doctrine. 5T 

salvation of each man that he know what the Bible is. 
and that he read it attentively in order to save his 
soul. If he cannot delegate the interpretation of the 
sacred text to any one else, much less can he delegate 
the more important question as to the existence of the 
Bible and its contents. 

Every man must, then, investigate for himself the 
authenticity of the inspired books, and prove to his 
own satisfaction that they were really written by 
those whose names they bear, and that in the lapse of 
time there have been no interpolations nor changes. 
This is the work of a life-time even for the highly 
educated, but, strictly speaking, it must be discharged 
by each one in his turn. He must go through the 
history of manuscripts and be able to understand the 
original text. 

Doubly is this necessary for Protestants, because 
the Bible was so many years in the hands of the 
Catholic Church, whose word cannot be trusted, and 
whose custody is suspicious. The Catholic Church is 
charged with being opposed to the diffusion of the 
Scriptures, on account of their denial of her claims. 
Why, then, should she not have altered the original 
text, and made use of her opportunity to make the 
Bible suit her doctrines ? Every age must, then, be 
carefully examined, and all the history of every book 
claiming to be inspired thoroughly weighed. The 



58 



Second Lectvbe. 



translations must be compared word by word with 
the original, and their correctness demonstrated by 
the most rigid criticism. Until this be done, no Pro- 
testant who would be consistent with himself can 
know what the Bible is, or that there is such a thing 
as a Bible. 

This work, which must be discharged by every in- 
dividual, is simply impossible. It is impossible to 
the most learned, and much more to the ignorant. 
If it be said that one may rely upon the testimony of 
others and the researches of Biblical scholars, we 
reply that all such testimony is fallible and liable 
to deceive. Such aid may prove of service, but can- 
not be relied upon as certain, because no man is 
infallible. We come back to the plain fact that the 
work of investigation must be performed by each one 
in his turn, or he cannot be sure that he possesses the 
inspired word of God. 

But, secondly, the question of inspiration is 
a still more difficult one to determine. When the 
consistent Protestant has satisfied himself that 
among all the apocryphal books and spurious gospels 
he has the authentic Scriptures, written by those holy 
men whose names they bear, and preserved without 
change for nineteen centuries in manuscript, and copy, 
and printed translation ; then he will have to prove 
that these writings are inspired by the Holy Ghost ; 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



59 



that these, and only these, are the divine revelation. 
How will he accomplish this % How will any one 
render himself positively sure that these writers here 
spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit % He 
must establish this inspiration in his own heart alone, 
and no external testimony can be of avail to him. 
God alone can certify to this act of His Spirit, and 
prove that the words written are indited by His 
agency. No external testimony which is not divine 
can here be admitted, since it is a divine fact which 
needs to be established; and of such facts God alone 
can be a witness. In true logic there is no such 
external testimony to a Protestant. The Church is 
fallible, and for centuries has fallen into gross error. 
His own church is only the aggregation of indi- 
viduals, and possesses no more authority than its 
members. The testimony of the Catholic Church on 
this point would be open to the gravest suspicion, 
and, its infallibility being denied, can be of no weight 
in a question as to a divine fact. 

History is only the record of events, and could not 
be a certain witness. It may be falsified, and can never 
be taken as a guide in the way of salvation. Besides, 
history only testifies that the Catholic Church re- 
ceived and certified the Holy Scriptures for many cen- 
turies, and this will be of no weight to one who denies 
the authority, and even Christianity, of the Church. 



60 



Second Lecture. 



The opinion of the majority is also unavailable here 
for the same reason. The majority of men are not in- 
fallible, nor is there any surety that their accord will 
establish a fact which concerns the invisible operation 
of the Holy Spirit. If the voice of the majority were 
uniform and clear, this alone would not demonstrate 
the divinity of the Scriptures. 

]STo witness whatever but an infallible one can be 
sufficient ; and to the Protest-apt there is no such 
witness. 

He is then driven to the assertion of an internal 
testimony, and a witness within him of the Spirit. 
Such is, in fact, the teaching of the Westminster Con- 
fession : ' ' Our full persuasion and assurance of the 
infallible truth and divine authority of the Scriptures 
is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing 
witness by and with the word in our hearts" So 
also the Belgic Confession clearly states the true and 
only consistent Protestant ground : " We receive the 
Scriptures, not because the Church receives and ap- 
proves them, but more especially because the Holy 
Ghost witnesseth in our hearts that they are from 
God, whereof they carry the evidence in them- 
selves." 

Such was the position taken by Luther and the 
chief Reformers. He received the Scriptural books 
which he approved, on the ground of his sense of 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



ei 



their inspiration. He had no more authority than 
any one else in this matter, and what he did, every 
one else has the right to do. Thus he gives his judg- 
ment on the Scriptures, and rejects several of the 
books of the Old Testament. '" Judith," says he, "is 
a good, serious, brave 'tragedy. Tobias is an elegant, 
pleasing, godly comedy. Ecclesiasticus is a profita- 
ble book for an ordinary man. Of very little worth 
is the book of Baruch, whoever the worthy Baruch 
may be. Esdras I would not translate, because there 
is nothing in it which you might not find better in 
iEsop. The first book of the Machabees might have 
been taken into the Scriptures, but the second is 
rightly cast out, though there is some good in it." 

"St. John's Gospel, St. Paul's Epistles, especially 
that to the Romans, and St. Peter's First Epistle are 
the true marrow and kernel of all the books of the 
Xew Testament. These books show thee Christ, and 
teach all which it is needful and blessed for thee to 
know, even if you never hear or see any other book or 
any other doctrine. Therefore is the Epistle of St. 
James a right straicy epistle compared with them, for 
it has no character of the Gospel in it. I do not hold 
this epistle to be the writing of any apostle, for these 
reasons : it contradicts St. Paul and all other Scrip- 
ture, in giving , righteousness to good works ; second- 
ly, it teaches Christian people, and yet does not once 



62 



Second Lecture. 



notice the passion, the resurrection, the Spirit of 
Christ." " I applaud the Epistle of St. Jude, though 
it cannot claim to be reckoned among the capital 
books which ought to lay the foundation of faith." 
Of the Apocalypse he simply says : " No man ought 
to be hindered from holding it to be a work of St. 
John or otherwise. Though it be a dumb prophecy, 
the true Christian can use it for consolation and 
warning." * 

The same right of private judgment is used by 
Zwinglius, (Ecolampadius, and other Reformers. Dr. 
Westcott, an English Protestant, admits that "the 
settlement of the English Bible-canon was deter- 
mined in England, no less than on the Continent, 
without critical discussion, by the tacit consent of 
the leaders of the Reformation" f 

" All Christians," says Luther, " enjoy in common 
the spiritual priesthood, and may take on them the 
office of preaching in its true sense. We are all 
priests in Christ ; all have power and authority to 
judge." 

This plain statement of the Protestant doctrine is 
the only consistent one. No other can be advanced 
which will not destroy the whole theory of the Re- 
formation. It follows, therefore, that this right of 

* Prefaces of Luther to the Books of Scripture, 
f Westeott's " Bible in the Church," p. 288. 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



63 



private judgment must be pushed to its strict con- 
clusions. No one can receive the sacred books, un- 
less he has proved their authenticity, and been fully 
satisfied by the internal witness of the Holy Ghost 
in his own heart that they are inspired. As to the 
first, no one has ever been able to do it ; and as to the 
second, the assertion of the subjective work of God 
in the individual heart is open to the gravest trouble 
and difficulty. Each one is a witness to himself, and, 
in the work of detecting the marks of inspiration, 
must claim to himself a divine influence almost equal 
to that of the sacred writers. Very few of Protes- 
tants have asserted such a claim ; and those who have 
done so, have exposed themselves, by extravagance 
and contradiction, as the victims of delusion. Under 
these conclusions of logic, and conditions of fact, we 
do not see how any intelligent Protestant can know 
the word of God, or be sure of its divine character. 
If he receive the Bible as the rule of his faith, he 
will do so without any certainty or infallible au- 
thority. As there is nothing else in Protestantism, 
it will result that he can have no divine faith in that 
which is his only guide in the way of salvation. 

2. Very few of what are called orthodox Protes- 
tants are, however, logical. They contradict them- 
selves at every turn, and sometimes are traitors to 
their first principles. They assume the authenticity 



64 



Second Lecture. 



and inspiration of the Scripture^, and proceed to ex- 
ercise their private interpretation upon them, as if 
these great questions were settled. The extent of 
their assumption is, that the way of salvation is only 
to be known and followed by the reading of the Bible, 
which they have accepted as divine. Our blessed 
Lord, who, to redeem our race, became man, has been 
pleased to commit His Gospel to writing, and by means 
of written books to make known His saving grace. 
They who would avail themselves of His redemption 
must read here His word, and, by the aid of the Holy 
Ghost, seize its true sense and obey it unto right- 
eousness. We have demonstrated that, in rigor of 
truth, they have no Bible and can have none. We 
now proceed to show that, even if they could have 
one, their way of salvation is impossible, and so that 
their Scriptures will prove of no use to them. 

First, the great majority of mankind can never 
avail themselves of this, the only means of salvation. 
Before the invention of printing, a.d. 1438, the sacred 
books were in manuscript, and, though copied with 
great care and zeal by the Catholic priesthood ; those 
who could avail themselves of direct knowledge of 
them were very few. A certain amount of scholar- 
ship was necessary, which belonged to the smallest 
portion of mankind. Nearly fifteen centuries of the 
Christian era passed without the invention of print- 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



65 



ing, which could bring the inspired text before the 
knowledge of the multitude. Even now ? when learn- 
ing is more general, what is the proportion of our 
race able to read the printed copy of the Bible ? The 
way of salvation then, according to Protestants, was 
utterly closed to the greater part of mankind. We 
say nothing here of the absurdity of the theory that 
a merciful God and divine Saviour could propose a 
plan of salvation which should be unavailable to 
nearly the whole race. A merely human teacher 
should have had more wisdom ; and if our Lord had 
purposed to save men by the reading of the Bible, 
He should have taught His apostles to print, and sent 
them with their presses throughout the earth. In- 
stead of this, He leaves the fountains of life sealed, and 
the Scriptures in manuscript for fifteen centuries, 
There is very little mercy in this view r of God. 
The sacred canon was not even settled until the 
fourth age, and apostles and bishops confined them- 
selves to preaching and administering the sacraments, 
when they might better have spent all their time in 
copying the inspired w T ord, and praying the Holy 
Ghost to teach them how to multiply more rapidly 
the Scriptures. Of what use were their exhortations 
and their interpretations of the sacred writers ? Not 
by the instrumentality of teachers, but by their own 
personal reading, were the redeemed to be saved. ISTo 



66 



Second Lecture. 



one had the right to assume the duty of interpreta- 
tion for another. By so doing they were keeping 
back the oracles of Grod from the people. Here, then, 
before printing, and even after printing, as mankind 
generally are found, the Bible is not available as the 
rule of faith. It seems to us unnecessary to multiply 
proofs at this point. The plan of evangelizing the 
world by means of a book which all must read, is one 
not only impossible in itself, but destined to total 
failure. 

Secondly, even those who can make use of the 
Scriptures, according to the theory of private inter- 
pretation, can accomplish little by their reading. The 
sacred text is often obscure, and where it is appa- 
rently plain, there is always ground for difference of 
opinion. I do not know that any one will assert that 
the inspired writings are always easy of interpretation. 
If there be such a one, facts and common sense contra- 
dict him, St. Peter says that " no prophecy of Scrip- 
ture is made by private interpretation," and he also 
says that in "the Epistles of St. Paul there are cer- 
tain things liard to be understood, which the unlearn- 
ed and unstable wrest, as they also do the other 
Scriptures, to their own destruction." * Even Luther 
with all his self-confidence, admits that " it is a great 



* 2 St. Peter iii. 16. 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



67 



and difficult thing to understand the Scriptures. Five 
years' hard labor are required to understand either the 
' Georgics ' or 6 Bucolics ' of Virgil ; an experience of 
twenty years to be master of the epistles of Cicero ; 
and one hundred years' study of the prophets Elias, 
Eliseus, of St. John the Baptist, of Christ and the 
apostles, to get a mere insight into the Scriptures. 5 ' 
It is idle and puerile to assert the simplicity of the 
inspired word, and its plain teaching of fundamentals, 
when experience has demonstrated how men equally 
sincere differ. The variations of Protestantism all 
spring from the private interpretation of the Bible, 
and these variations touch the most essential points 
of revelation. They touch the whole economy of the 
atonement, and the application of the merits of Christ. 
They touch in all its parts the question of redemp- 
tion. They even touch the being and attributes of 
God. All Protestants as interpreters are equal in au- 
thority, and no one can divest himself of his respon- 
sibility or delegate his duty to another. The Holy 
Ghost must work in his own individual heart in 
union with the written word, that he may embrace the 
grace of Christ to his justification. All Protestant 
sects stand upon the same platform, and are all enti- 
tled to the same weight of authority. They are ag- 
gregations of individuals who are no greater nor less 
by their aggregation. Facts in the history of Protes- 



68 



Second Lecture, 



tantism demonstrate that the reading of the written 
word has been the fruitful source of disunion. But 
the truth is one and invariable, and therefore the 
Bible without note or comment has not proved the 
means of finding out the truth. Rather has it been 
the foundation of enormous and conflicting errors. 

A .further proof that private interpretation defeats 
the very end of Holy Scripture may be seen in the 
fact that the plainest texts, where no unprejudiced 
child should mistake the sense, are perverted to mean 
either nothing or the contrary of their literal expres- 
sion. Thus it has so happened by divine Providence 
that the parts of the Catholic creed especially assailed 
by the Reformation are just those which are stated by 
the inspired writers in the plainest terms. 

Our Lord says : "Thou art Peter [i.e.., a rock], and 
upon this rock I will build my Church. And I will 
give to thee [Peter] the keys of the kingdom of hea- 
ven." * Nothing can be simpler on the supposition 
that our divine Redeemer meant what He said and 
knew what He meant. But Protestantism makes Him 
say worse than nothing. Peter was not the rock, 
though God called him such, and he received no- 
thing which was not the property of the apostles. 
And this is the stultification of the sacred text, in 



* St. Matt. xvi. 18, 19. 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



69 



spite of the universal reception of St. Peter's head- 
ship of the Church for centuries, both as a doctrine 
and a fact. 

Our Lord says : " Except you eat of the flesh of the 
Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have 
life in you." * And in the institution of the divine 
Eucharist He says : " This is my body. This is my 
blood, "f 

But these so simple words are distorted to deny 
their plain sense, and make our Lord say only a trite 
truth, which could- have been much better expressed 
in proper language. No novice in teaching would 
have been guilty of such folly, and if He did not 
mean what His words expressed, He is simply a de- 
ceiver. 

Again, He says to the apostles : " Whose sins you 
shall forgive, they are forgiven them " ; $ but this self- 
evident passage is of no meaning whatever. Our 
Lord must have been mocking their credulity, for He 
never gave any one the power to forgive sin, and He 
never could do so. We might ask in all simplicity, 
then, What did the Son of God mean when He said 
these words and breathed upon the kneeling disci- 
ples? 

St. James says : "If any man be sick among you, 



* St, John Yi. 54. f St. Matt. xxvi. 26-28. $ St. John xx. 23. 



70 



Second Lecture. 



let him bring in the priests of the Church, and let 
them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the 
name of the Lord."* Christian antiqnity for centu- 
ries saw in this passage the manifest reference to the 
Sacrament of Extreme Unction. Protestantism calls 
this a foolish and superstitious ceremony, and the 
Church of England declares that " it has grown from 
the corrupt following of the apostles." 

But why multiply citations % The main peculiari- 
ties of reformed doctrine are the most ingenious and 
unnatural twistings of the inspired word. The great 
theory of justification by faith has not one plain text 
to support it, but is the torture of passages of St. 
Paul which even Luther admitted were contradicted 
by St. James. 

The doctrine of predestination adopted by many 
of the Reformers is a terrible calumny against the 
mercy of Grod, depending upon texts whose meaning 
is perverted to the denial of the divine attributes. 
There is no sect, however extravagant, which does not 
draw its authority from the Bible. And, in face of 
all these facts, we cannot but conclude that the Scrip- 
tures, submitted to the private judgment of each indi- 
vidual, have produced every religious and moral evil. 
The fault is not in the word of inspiration, but in its 



* St. James v. 14 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



71 



unhallowed and unauthorized use. God' s own word 
has been made, by the artifice of the devil, the ruin 
of many souls. We quote from the language of the 
Protestant Bishop Jebb : " The Bible, indiscriminate- 
ly scattered through the land, may be rendered in- 
strumental to the most wicked purposes. Men with- 
out faith, hope, or charity are laboring to convert 
that volume into the text-book of anarchy and athe- 
ism. The book, chapter, and verse are unblushingiy 
referred to, whence a disastrous and diabolical chem- 
istry extracts the poison of blasphemy and unbelief, 
The shops, the markets, the stalls, the very courts of 
justice, are saturated with these materials of destruc- 
tion, temporal and eternal. At such a time, and amidst 
such a deluge of unnatural impiety, the people ought 
to be set upon their guard. They ought to be in- 
structed how possible it is to read the Scriptures, 
not only without profit, but with moral and spiritual 
detriment. They ought to be made sensible that the 
word of God, if it prove not a savor of life unto life, 
may become a savor of death unto death." * 

The argument, therefore, of this brief discourse de- 
monstrates the Protestant doctrine concerning the 
Holy Scriptures to be false and fruitful of evil. It 
strips the inspired word of its authority, leaves it to 



* Jebb, 45 Practical Theology," I. 303. 



72 



Second Lecture. 



the judgment of men, and makes it the pretext for 
unbelief and division. The children of the Reforma- 
tion, tried by their own creed, have no Bible ; and 
their use of the sacred text, which they have received 
on the authority of the Catholic Church, is the perver- 
sion of that which is most holy. The interpretation 
and explanation of the inspired books ought not to 
be made, and cannot be made, by the acumen and 
genius of each individual. They are not the work of 
man alQne, ' £ since holy men in them speak as they 
were moved by the Holy Grhost." 

" Learn hence," says St. Ambrose, "that Satan 
transforms himself, as it were, into an angel of light, 
and often sets a snare for the faithful by the means 
of the divine Scriptures themselves. Thus does he 
make heretics ; thus weaken faith ; thus attack the re- 
quirements of piety. Let not, therefore, the heretic 
ensnare thee because he is able to cite a few ex- 
amples from Scripture ; let him not assume to him- 
self an appearance of learning. The devil also uses 
texts of Scripture, not to teach> but to circumvent 
and deceive." * 

To the same purport are these words of St. Jerome : 
" These things I have lightly touched upon, that you 
may understand that you cannot make your way 

* St. Ambrose, T. I. Expos, in IV. Luc. 



The Protestant Doctrine. 



73 



into the Holy Scriptures without having some one to 
go before you and show you the road. I say noth- 
ing of grammarians, rhetoricians, geometricians, logi- 
cians, whose knowledge is of great use to mankind. 
But I will come to the inferior arts, such as are exer- 
cised not so much by the reason as by the hand. 
Even these artisans cannot become what they desire 
without the help of a teacher. The science of the 
Scriptures is the only one which all persons indis- 
criminately claim as theirs. This the babbling old 
woman, this the doating old man, this the wordy 
sophist, take upon themselves, tear to tatters, teach 
before they themselves have learned. Some, weigh- 
ing out long words, with uplifted eyebrow, talk 
philosophy to a crowd of young women concerning 
the sacred writings. Others learn from women what 
to teach men ; and, as if this were not bad enough, 
they, with a certain facility of words, or rather ef- 
frontery, expound to others what they do not under- 
stand themselves. I speak not of those who, coming 
to the study of the Scriptures after that of secular 
learning, and by their eloquent language pleasing 
the popular ear, fancy that which they utter to be 
the law of God. They do not deign to learn what 
the prophets and the apostles thought, but they ac- 
commodate to their interpretation the most incon- 
gruous passages, as if it were something great to dis- 



74 



Second Lecture. 



tort sentences, and to force the reluctant Scriptures 
to their own wishes." * 

" Foolish men/' says St. Ephraem, "they are as- 
siduous at Scripture, not to profit by pious reading, 
but that they may err more freely. They have 
turned aside from the stones set in the King 1 s high- 
way ; and that they may wander with less restraint, 
they have plunged into pathless and desert places. t 
But indeed to him alone who perseveres in keeping 
the King' s highway will it be granted to possess the 
gifts and come into the presence of the King." + 



* St. Jerome, Ep 53 ad Paulin. f St. Ephraem, Serm. 66. 



Lecture Third. 



THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE AMONG 
PROTESTANTS. 



Lecture Third, 



THE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE AMONG PROTESTANTS, 



6 ' Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate ; and 
every city or house divided against itself shall not stand."— St. Mat- 
thew xii. 25. 

rj^HE object of the present lecture is to set forth 
briefly the actual history of the Bible among 
Protestants. Having taken it into their own hands 
without any sufficient proof of its authority as the 
inspired word of God, they have been responsible for 
its use among themselves. It mil be interesting to 
know precisely what they have done with it, and how 
far the Holy Scriptures in their hands have retained 
their sacred character. Our design will be accom- 
plished by giving, firsf, a statement of the principal 
Protestant translations ; secondly, a view of the 
changes wrought by them in the canon of the Bible ; 
thirdly, an outline of the diversities of interpretation 
consequent upon their theory ; and, lastly, the pro- 

77 



78 



Third Lecture, 



gress and result of evangelization by means of the 
Scriptures alone. 

I. 

As Protestantism began with Luther, our view of 
the translations of the Bible will naturally begin with 
the Reformation. There were many forerunners of 
Luther, of whose religious and moral character he has 
no occasion to be proud. The work of Wyeliffe was 
in some respects the inspiration of the reformed move- 
ment. His translation of the Scriptures appeared in 
1382. Of it the English writer, Canon Westcott, 
says: "Like the earlier Saxon translations, it was 
made from the Latin Vulgate. It was so exactly lite- 
ral that in many places the meaning was obscure. 
The followers of Wyclitfe were not blind to these de- 
fects, and within a few years after his death a com- 
plete revision of the Bible was undertaken by John 
Purvey/' * This revision, made about 1388, near- 
ly displaced Wyeliffe' s, and was widely circulated 
among all classes until superseded by the printed ver- 
sions of the sixteenth century ; 

The translation of Martin Luther, which is the first 
of the actually Protestant translations, was begun in 
1522 and finished in 1532. The New Testament came 



* Westcott, ' ' History of the English Bible," p. 13. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 79 

first ; in a year came the Pentateuch ; another year 
completed the historical books and the Hagiographa ; 
two years more brought Jonas and Habacuc, and the 
prophets were published in 1532. The Brescia edi- 
tion of 1494 was the foundation of Luther's work. 
He was assisted by Melancthon, Bugenhagen, and 
Cruciger. A writer in the " American Cyclopaedia" 
tells us that "it threw all the previous German ver- 
sions into the shade, assisted immensely in the spread 
of the Reformation, and, in spite of its many obscuri- 
ties and inaccuracies, remains to this day in general 
use among the Protestant churches of the German 
tongue." * 

A Danish translation was made in 1550, into which 
Pedersen' s translation of the New Testament and the 
Psalms was incorporated. 

The Italian translation of Diodati appeared in 1603. 
Diodati, a zealous Calvinist, also published what he 
called a free translation of the New Testament, and a 
French translation of the Old Testament in 1644. 

The first translation of the New Testament into the 
Welsh language was made in 1597 by William Sales- 
bury, and the whole Bible was translated and com- 
pleted by William Morgan in 1598. 

A translation in the Bohemian language was pub- 



*"Am. Cyclopia.," X. 789. 



80 



Third Lecture. 



lislied by the Clmrcli of the Bohemian Brethren. It 
appeared in several editions from 1579 to 1593. 

The French Bible published at Neufchatel in 1535, 
under the name of Olivetan, is no donbt the work of 
Calvin. Its title is: "The Bible; that is, all the 
Holy Scripture, in which are contained the Old Tes- 
tament and the New, translated in French, the Old 
from the Hebrew and the New from the Greek. 5 ' 

Theodore Beza also published in 1556 a version of 
the New Testament, which passed through many edi- 
tions ; and took part in the translation of the Bible, 
revised from the Hebrew and Greek text, which was 
issued in 1588 by the pastors of the church in Geneva. 

The first edition of the New Testament which was 
printed in English was that of Tyndale, which was 
probably executed at Worms in 1525. 

The edition of Miles Coverdale followed in 1535, 
was published on the Continent, and dedicated to 
Henry VIII., "our Moses, who brought us out of the 
land of Egypt, from the cruel hands of our spiritual 
Pharaoh." 

The work of Tyndale, interrupted by his death, was 
continued by his friend, John Rogers, and was pub- 
lished in 1537 under the name of Thomas Matthew. 

A translation was also made by R. Taverner in 1539 
at London, which follows closely Matthew's Bible, 
with some significant changes. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 



Si 



Cranmer's Bible, or the Great Bible, appeared in 
1540, and was appointed to be read in the churches. 

The Genevan Bible was the work of English exiles 
at Geneva in 1560. It was generally received, and be- 
came for many years the popular Bible in England. 

In 1568 the Bishops' Bible was published, bearing 
the sanction of the English bishops. 

The commonly -received version of King James was 
published in 1611. It was the work of fifty-four 
divines appointed by the king. The Bishops' Bible 
was the basis of this edition, compared with Tyiv 
dale's, Coverdale's, and the preceding English trans- 
lations, as well as with the original text. The com- 
mission also made important use of the Rhemish and 
Genevan versions. 

It will be observed that none of these Protestant 
editions were dependent upon any ecclesiastical sanc- 
tion, and such sanction would have given them no 
weight to those who received them. 

To the translations we have enumerated are also to 
be added two Spanish versions, one by C. Reyna, 
which appeared in Basle in 1569, and another by C. 
de Valera at Amsterdam in 1602. 

The English Bible published under the authority 
of King James has continued the generally -received 
translation among English and American Protestants. 
Grave objections have been made at various times to 



82 



Third Lecture. 



its rendering of certain passages ; and in 1870 a new 
revision was recommended by the Convocation of 
Canterbury, to which, it invited the co-operation of 
eminent scholars both in England and America. 
This revision will soon appear, and, according to the 
opinion of one of the commission, 4 4 will modernize 
the Bible and free it from its air of antiquity, and 
ere long take the place of the present version in pul- 
pit and pew, in school and home, as presenting in 
clearer and truer form the meaning of the evangel- 
ists as they uttered the word of God." 

The American Bible Union seceded from the Ame- 
rican and Foreign Bible Society when that body de- 
cided that it was not its province or duty to revise 
the English Bible. The primary end of this Union is 
to procure a thorough and faithful revision of the 
common English text. To accomplish this it has 
employed the aid of scholars of nine Protestant de- 
nominations. The committee is composed mainly of 
Baptists, though it professes to be impartial. The 
New Testament has had three revisions ; and ver- 
sions of several of the books of the Old Testament 
have been already published. Objections have been 
made, however, to this revision, and it does not seem 
to possess the general approval of the Protestant 
sects. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 



83 



II. 

We proceed now to note the changes which these 
translations have made in the canon of Holy Scrip- 
ture. 

Martin Luther took upon himself to expunge from 
the canon of inspired books those of the Old Testa- 
ment called deutero-canonical. In his prefaces to 
these books he gives at length his opinion as to their 
character and authority. The result was that they 
were published as " Apocrypha," or books profitable 
for pious reading, but no part of the sacred text, be- 
cause not inspired by the Holy Spirit. The catalogue 
in the edition of 1534 gives as " Apocrypha" Judith, 
Wisdom, Tobias, Eeclesiasticus, th? two books of 
Machabees, parts of Esther, parts of Daniel, and 
the Prayer of Manasses. 

From the canon of the New Testament he also re- 
jects the Epistle to the Hebrews ; the Epistle of St. 
James, which he says is unworthy of the apostle : 
the Epistle of St. Jude, and the Apocalypse. These 
he placed at the end of his translation, after the 
others which he called **the true and certain capital 
books of the Xew Testament/ ' Of the Epistle to 
the Hebrews he says: ki It is certainly not by an 
apostle, and is not to be placed on the same foot- 
ing with the apostolic writings." ''The Epistle of 



84 



Third Lecture. 



St, James is one of straw. I do not liold it to be his 
writing, and I cannot place it among the capital 
books." 

" The Epistle of St. Jude is indisputably an extract 
or abstract from the Second Epistle of St. Peter. It 
cannot be ranked among books which ought to lay 
the foundation o'f faith." * 

These disputed books of the New Testament were 
called the " Antilegomina," and were placed in an 
Appendix. Canon Westcott tells us that "the Lu- 
theran Church has no recognized definition of canoni- 
city and no express list of the sacred books." f The 
Lutheran Bible has the Ax)ocrypha by themselves, 
and the Antilegomina at the end of the New Testa- 
ment. " The judgments which Luther delivered are 
not more favorable to one class than another. To a 
certain extent the question was left open, and usage 
only has determined the subordinate position of the 
Apocrypha to the Old Testament and elevated the 
Antilegomina of the New Testament to an equality 
with the remaining books." % 

The result of this interference with the received 
canon of Scripture appears in the language of the Re- 
formers, who made themselves the judges of inspira- 
tion. 

* Luther's prefaces. f Westcott, " Bible in the Church," p. 266. 

X Ibid. , 266. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 



S5 



Carlstadt, the friend of Luther, and his co-laborer 
in the revision of the Bible, divides all the sacred 
books into three classes of different dignity. The 
first class contains only the Pentateuch and the four 
Gospels, which he calls " the clearest luminaries of the 
whole divine truth." The second class embraces the 
prophets and the epistles of the New Testament which 
Luther acknowledged ; while the third contained the 
Hagiographa of the Hebrew canon, and the seven dis- 
puted books of the New Testament. Westcott de- 
clares his treatise to be "the first clear assertion of 
the supremacy of the Holy Scripture, and so far the 
first enunciation of the fundamental principle of the 
Reformation." * 

Calvin and his first followers rejected the deutero- 
canonical books of the Old Testament, but left all the 
books of the New in the canon of Script are. Calvin, 
in the exercise of his private judgment, expresses 
himself with the same boldness as Luther. He ap- 
proves the Epistle to the Hebrews, though he does 
not believe that St. Paul was the author. He sees no 
good reason for rejecting St. James and St. Jude, and 
accepts the Second Epistle of St, Peter, though u in it he 
fails to recognize the genuine language of the apostle." 

The edition of Beza is similar to that of Calvin in 



* Westcott, p. 268. 



86 



Third Lecture, 



the arrangement of the canon, and his private opinion 
is given as the basis of action. He approves and de- 
fends the Epistle to the Hebrews, and sets aside the 
objections made by Luther to the other books of the 
~New Testament. 

The Church of England rejects the deutero-canoni- 
cal books of the Old Testament, giving the titles of 
them in its catalogue, in which are found the third 
and fourth books of Esdras and the Prayer of Ma- 
nasses, not received by the Catholic Church. Of these 
books, called " Apocrypha, ' ' it says: "They are to 
be read for instruction of manners and example of 
life, but that no doctrine can be established by 
them." " All the books of the New Testament it re- 
ceives and accounts canonical." The Presbyterians, 
in the Westminster Confession, profess the same 
c anon as the Episcopalians, with this difference, that 
they speak with much less respect of the deutero- 
canonical books. "These books, commonly called 
Apocrypha, as they are not divinely inspired, make 
no part of the canon of Scripture, and are of no au- 
thority in the church, and should only be used as hu- 
man writings." 

Since the edition of King James, which the Protes- 
tant sects have generally received, this view of the 
canon has been adopted among them. Some of the 
more recent sects, however, have raised doubts in re- 



History of the Protestant Bible. 87 

gard to special portions of the New Testament which 
they were unwilling to accept. 

The Protestant Bible contained the canon of the 
English Church, and the apocryphal books were 
printed as an appendix to the Old Testament. This 
continued until the year 1826, when the British and 
Foreign Bible Society took the responsibility of ex- 
punging the deutero-canonical books from its edi- 
tions, and passed a resolution that the u Apocrypha " 
should no longer be published, and that they would 
never aid any association that should publish them. 
To this decree of a Bible society Protestants generally 
have submitted, and hence all their recent editions of 
the Bible appear without these books, which are now 
little known among the sects. To this arbitrary ac- 
tion of a lay association, the Greek schismatical 
church, as well as many of the English Establishment, 
strenuously protested. Their protest, however, has 
proved unavailing, since this society has the control 
of the largest number of the Protestant Bibles, and 
at great expense circulates them throughout the 
world. In fact, very few are found even in the Epis- 
copal communion who regard the deutero-canonical 
books as anything more than human. 

In this brief outline of the changes made by the 
Protestant translators in the canon of Scripture two 
things will manifestly appear : 



88 Third Lecture. 

First, there is no pretence of any ecclesiastical au- 
thority for these changes ; and the great question as to 
the inspiration of the different books of the Bible is 
submitted wholly to the private judgment of the indi- 
vidual. It is a fundamental question which concerns 
the very existence of the inspired word ; it determines 
precisely what is the sacred text by which God has 
spoken ; yet it is left to private translators, wdio are 
permitted to act for others without even examination. 
The great mass of Protestants have quietly taken 
their word, and never think of weighing this momen- 
tous matter for themselves. The action of their 
churches would indeed give no more certainty, since 
they are only the projection of their members ; but at 
least it would be the voice of many, and not simply 
the word of one man. Speaking of the Swiss Refor- 
mers, Westcott says: u Custom fixed the details of 
their judgment, and the idea of inspiration was sub- 
stituted for that of canonicity. The test of authority 
was placed in individual sentiment and not in the 
common witness of the congregation. 55 * "The sub- 
ject of the canon was determined in England, no less 
than on the Continent, without critical discussion, 
by the tacit consent of the leaders of the Reforma- 
tion. 55 f 



* "Bible in the Church," p. 275. 



flWtf., p. 288. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 89 

The conclusion, then, is that the Reformers and 
their followers have only human authority for their 
Bible, and human authority at its lowest point. 
They cannot know which are the inspired books, and 
the whole question of a Bible is a mere matter of 
opinion. They are free to accept Luther' s canon or 
to reject it. They are free to reject one or all of the 
sacred writings. 

Secondly, it also appears that there was grave dif- 
ference of opinion among the fathers of the Reforma- 
tion in regard to the canonicity and inspiration of the 
various scriptures. Some have thrown out a number 
of the inspired books with a free hand. Others have 
received only a portion of the New Testament, freely 
expressing their judgment as to the merits of the 
Epistles or Gospels. For Luther there is a hidden 
Gospel. "You can rightly judge, 55 says he, " be- 
tween all the books, and distinguish which are the 
best; for St. John's Gospel and St. Paul's Epistles, 
especially that to the Romans, and St. Peter' s First 
Epistle, are the true marrow and kernel of all the 
books." Each individual must settle these differ- 
ences for himself and decide among so many differing 
doctors. Protestants generally have no authority but 
the translation of the Bible which they accept. By 
this they settle all points of doctrine and morals. Is 
it not, then, to them a momentous fact that their 



90 



Third Lecture. 



spiritual fathers, on whom they depend for the word 
of God, were at variance as to the most essential 
points ? We may well repeat that, strictly tried, 
they have no Bible, and are not in possession of any 
certain canon of Holy Scripture. 

To reject from the sacred text whole books and pas- 
sages received by the Catholic Church as the divine 
revelation, bearing the same authority as all the other 
parts of the Bible, is surely a very serious matter. 
To do this against the judgment of Christian antiqui- 
ty, on purely human authority, is a high-handed folly 
which has few parallels in ecclesiastical history. The 
closing words of the Apocalypse, rejected by so many 
of the Reformers, give their solemn warning: "If 
any man shall take away from the words of the book 
of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of 
the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from 
these things that are written in this book." * And 
what shall be said of the curious spectacle of a society 
which takes the liberty to expunge a portion of the 
received Scriptures, and then draws the acquies- 
cence of nearly all Protestantism to its arbitrary act % 
Time travels rapidly. Foundations laid on the sand 
sink beneath the changing surface. \\ e expect to 
see many editions yet, in which other changes shall 



Apoc. xxii. 19. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 91 

be made to suit the varying opinion of those who 
have no guide but their own judgment. The disput- 
ed parts of the Gospels shall be omitted, and the 
Epistles cut down by the arbitrary word of biblical 
criticism or sectarian prejudice. That is not divine 
which is subjected to the fluctuations of passion or 
the inconsistencies of the human intellect. 

"The work begun by Luther has been pursued 
with ardor by his followers. The consequence is 
that scarcely one single book of the New Testa- 
ment has escaped their destroying hands. Sieffert, 
Schultse, Schott, Fischer, De Wette, and Schnecken- 
burger deny the authenticity of St. Matthew. Mi- 
chaelis will not allow the canonicity of St. Mark and 
St. Luke. Schleiermacher thinks the Gospel of St. 
Luke to be the work of four different authors. 
Vogel, Horst, and Ballenstedt reject the Gospel of 
St. John. Baur denies the credibility of the Acts, 
and De Wette, bolder still, maintains that it betrays 
ignorance of Jewish manners, contains errors, and 
narrates miracles partly irrational, partly immoral. 
Sender and Eichhorn doubt the genuineness of the 
lif teenth and sixteenth chapters of the Epistle to the 
Romans. Mayerhoff pronounces spurious that to the 
Colossians. Schmidt and Kern have their doubts 
about the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians. The 
three Epistles to Timothy and Titus are repudiated by 



92 



Third Lecture. 



Schleiermacher, Schott, Baur, Mayerhoff, and Schra- 
der. Credner and Neudecker have spared the Epis- 
tle to Titus, but give up as not genuine the two 
addressed to Timothy. The Catholic Epistles have 
fared worse, and have been sacrificed each in its turn. 
Luther condemned that of St. James as 6 an epistle 
of straw,' but his early followers restored it to the 
canon. Kern and De Wette have again displaced it. 
The First Epistle of St. Peter is rejected by Cludius, 
the Second by Semler, Schott, Guericke, and others. 
The Second and Third Epistles of St. John are con- 
demned by Fritzche, Paulus, and Credner, and all 
three by Lange, Cludius, and Bretschneider. The 
unnecessary Epistle of St. Jude is denied by Bolten, 
Dake, and Bergen. Finally, the Apocalypse, in spite 
of all its good service against the Roman Antichrist, 
has been thrust aside not only by Luther and Calvin, 
but also by some of their latest disciples — Semler, Mi- 
chaelis, De Wette, Bretschneider, and many others." * 

III. 

We have seen the Reformers in their work of trans- 
lating and altering the sacred word by the freedom 
of their opinions. Let us now take a slight view of 

* Very Rev. Dr. Corcoran, American Catholic Quarterly, January, 1879. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 93 

the happy family in the possession of their Scriptures, 
and behold the unity which resulted from their sys- 
tem of salvation. As there was no agreement in re- 
gard to the canon of the Bible, so there was no unani- 
mity as to their translations or the meaning of the 
sacred text. 

1. The judgment of Catholics will perhaps not be 
accepted by Protestants ; we therefore will briefly give 
some of the notes of the Reformers. When Luther's 
translation first appeared, the learned Emser detected 
no less than a thousand faults. The only reply he 
made to this was to launch out his vocabulary of 
abusive epithets. " These popish asses/' said he, 
" are not able to appreciate my labors." 

Martin Bucer, a brother Reformer, says that "his 
errors in translating were manifest and not a few." 
Zwinglius pronounces his Bible a corruption of the 
word of God. Hallaxn says : " The translation of the 
Old and New Testament by Luther is more renowned 
for the purity of its German idiom than for its ad- 
herence to the original text. Simon has charged him 
with ignorance of Hebrew ; and when we consider how 
late he came to the knowledge of that or the Greek 
language, it may be believed that his acquaintance 
with them was far from extensive." * "-It has been 

* Hallam, " Historical Literature," I. 201. 



94 



Third Lecture. 



as ill spoken of among Calvinists as by the Catho- 
lics themselves." 

The errors in Luther 1 s version were not those of 
ignorance, but were a wilful perversion of the Scrip- 
tures to suit his own views. Let us note only a few 
examples. In St. Matthew iii. 2, he renders the 
word " repent, or do penance, 11 by the expression 
" mend, or do better." 

Acts xix. 18, "Many of them that believed came 
confessing and declaring their deeds." Lest this 
should confirm the practice of confession, he refers 
the deeds to the apostles, and reads, "they acknow- 
ledge the miracles of the apostles. 11 These errors 
were afterwards corrected by his followers. The ex- 
pression "full of grace, 11 in the annunciation of the 
Blessed Virgin, he renders "thou gracious one." 
Romans iv. 15, "the law worketh wrath," he trans- 
lates "the law worketh only wrath," thus adding a 
word to the text and changing its sense. 

Romans iii. 28, " We account a man to be justified 
by faith without the works of the law," he renders 
by the interpolating of a word, " We hold that a man 
is justified without works of the law by faith alone" 
His answer to Emser's exposition of his perversion of 
the text was : " If your Papist annoys you with the 
word {alone), tell him straightway : Dr. Martin Luther 
will have it so ; Papist and ass are one and the same 



History of the Protestant Bible. 95 

thing." " Whoever will not have my translation, let 
him give it the go-by ; the devil' s thanks to him who 
censures it without my will and knowledge. Luther 
will have it so, and he is a doctor above all the doc- 
tors in popedom." 

The object of new translations was to correct errors, 
or to teach new doctrines by the perversion of the 
inspired text. Bishop Trevern says : 6 ' (Ecolampa- 
dius and the theologians of Basle made another trans- 
lation ; but, according to the famous Beza, it was im- 
pious in many parts. The divines of Basle said the 
same of Beza's version. In fact, adds Dumoulin, an- 
other learned minister, ' he changes in it the text of 
Scripture.' Speaking of Calvin's version, he says 
that 'he does violence to the letter of the Gospel, 
which he has changed, making also additions of his 
own.' The ministers of Geneva believed themselves 
obliged to make an exact version ; but James I., King 
of England, in his conference at Hampton Court, 
declared that of all the versions it was the most 
wicked and unfaithful/' * 

The version of Beza thus spoken of by the divines 
of Basle was in great measure the foundation of the 
English versions. The Very Rev. Dr. Corcoran, one 
of the most learned of American Catholic writers, thus 



* "Amic. Discussion,*' I. 127. 



96 



Third Lecture. 



speaks of Beza : " In the wicked art of insinuating 
dogmatical error by mistranslation lie stands almost 
without a rival. In the abundance and recklessness 
of those perversions none have equalled him ; in the 
effrontery which avowed and sought to justify them 
he is surpassed by none but Luther. Others, indeed, 
have sought to intrude their opinions into tliQ sa- 
cred text by adroit omissions, additions, and false 
renderings ; but they did it stealthily, for they 
w^ere conscious of w r rong and feared detection. Not 
so Luther and Beza, whose Bibles are the doc- 
trinal foundations of the Lutheran and Anglican 
churches. They make no secret of their shame, but 
publish it, defend it, and glory in it. They pervert 
and mistranslate Scripture on theory and principle. 
Yet there is some difference between them. Luther 
quailed before the indignant outcry of the Catholic 
world, and in subsequent editions, from shame or 
policy, suppressed some of his worst perversions. We 
are not sure that the translator of Geneva ever re- 
tracted or corrected more than one passage. '* 

The very reverend doctor has given, in the article 
from wdiich w r e quote, abundant instances of this per- 
version of the sacred text. Time, however, will not 
allow us to allude to more than two or three of the 

* American Catholic Quarterly, July, 1879. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 97 

most striking, where the intention to mislead the read- 
er is self-evident. 

St. Peter, in his First Epistle, ii. 8, terms onr Lord 
" a rock of scandal, to them who stumble at the word, 
and do not believe whereunto they are also set." This 
is the Catholic version, conformable to the Vulgate (in 
quo et positi sunt), and thus it was rendered by some 
of the early Anglican Bibles : 6 £ they believe not that 
whereon they were set." Beza, however, changes the 
word " set " into " created," making the apostle to say 
that they were " unbelievers, unto which they were 
created" Thus he would teach the doctrine of pre- 
destination of the wicked unto eternal death. So in 
Acts ii. 23, " Jesus of Nazareth, delivered up by the 
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you 
by the hands of wicked men have crucified and slain," 
he renders foreknowledge by providence, intimating 
the divine concurrence in the death of our Lord. 

In St. John i. 12 we read : "To as many as received 
Him, He gave power to be made the sons of God." 
This is the plain rendering of the original. Beza, 
however, seeing the exercise of free-will in this pas- 
sage, mistranslates power into dignity, reading : " He 
gave them this dignity that they should become, the 
sons of God." The word jpower would imply free ac- 
tion, while dignity might be only the gift of God by 
His absolute decree of election. 



98 



Third Lecture, 



St. James ii. 22 : " Seest tlicra that faith did co ope- 
rate with his works, and by works faith was made 
perfect?" This is the translation of the Vulgate, 
and the literal rendering of the Greek. Beza must 
alter this plain teaching of the necessity of good 
works, and make the apostle say ' ' faith was a help- 
er of his works." 

The teaching of St. Panl (1 Tim. ii. 4), "God, onr 
Saviour, will have all men to be saved," he changes 
the text so as to say that He wills the salvation 
of men of all kinds ; and the same mistranslation 
is made of the sixth verse, "He gave Himself a re- 
demption for all." 

In Acts xiv. 22 we read that the apostles Panl 
and Barnabas "ordained to them priests in every 
church." This text is made to read in Beza's ver- 
sion, " having chosen presbyters by election," mak- 
ing a gratuitous interpolation of the expression "by 
votes, or election." 

In the same manner he mistranslates 2 Cor. viii. 
19, " ordained by the churches companion of our tra- 
vels," and renders it "chosen by vote of the churches 
as the companion of our journey." * 

There is not space to add here any more citations, 
but sufficient for our purpose have been given. JSot 

* See American Catholic Quarterly, October, 1880. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 99 

only Catholics, but Anglicans, Lutherans, and even 
Presbyterians, have condemned the translation of 
Beza for its perversions of Scripture. It was also the 
custom of these Protestant revisers to add notes, by 
which they might still further advance their doctrines 
and justify their corruptions of the inspired word, 
This they continue to do even in our day, not only 
in the English language, but in every language into 
which they translate the sacred text. It is one of 
the arts of the Bible Society by which in foreign 
tongues, and to heathen lands, they seek to propa- 
gate their opinions. 

If we refer to the English versions we shall find the 
same want of fidelity and unanimity on the part of 
the revisers. Between 1535 and 1611 seven different 
translations were made, and principally to satisfy 
difference of opinion. ~No copy was in any way au- 
thorized until the time of James I., and the edi- 
tions of Tyndale and Coverdale were by many con- 
demned as faulty. There was so much dissatisfac- 
tion with the prevailing editions of the Bible that the 
new translation was provided for, and afterwards au- 
thorized by King James. This version follows in 
many things that of Beza, which we have shown to be 
unfaithful. It had no sooner appeared than it was 
denounced as incorrect by many Protestant divines. 

" Year after year men like Archbishop Newcome, 



100 



Third Lecture. 



Symonds, -Wakefield, and Blackwall suggested im- 
portant alterations, and published what to them ap- 
peared more correct and amended . editions of the 
written word." 

' ' Lowth, one of the ablest scholars Protestantism 
can boast of, objects to the interpretation of the Old 
Testament adopted by the Masorites. And this sys- 
tem was followed by the English translators, who 
took the present Hebrew text, as it is printed by the 
Masorites, as the only sense and meaning of the Old 
Testament." * Biblical scholars also have found 
great fault with the Greek text used by the transla- 
tors of King James' Bible ; and Mills and Bentley 
reckoned more than a thousand variations from the 
received Greek and Latin examples. Many correc- 
tions have been made since the first revision, but 
grave mistranslations exist to this day. Archbishop 
Kenrick proves by comparison of the original text, as 
edited even by Protestants, that the received version 
still retains five grievous perversions of the sense, in 
matters affecting doctrine, f For illustration, we give 
one of these wilful alterations of the original text. 
1 Cor. xi. 27: " Whosoever shall eat this bread or 
drink this chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be 
guilty of the body and blood of the Lord." In the 

* Waterworth, " Development of Anglicanism, " p. 183. 
f "Theol. Dog.," I. 427, 



History of the Protestant Bible. . 101 

English version the translators have deliberately 
changed the word or into and, making the apostle to 
say, " Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this 
cup." For this interpolation there is not the slight- 
est excuse ; and the only motive for the change was 
to attack the Catholic practice of Communion in one 
kind. 

Also, in the account of the institution of the Holy 
Eucharist, St. Matt. xxvi. 26, they have inserted the 
pronoun it without the slightest warrant of the origi- 
nal. The Greek text reads: u iVnd while they were 
at supper, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke, 
and gave to His disciples, and said : " Take ye and 
eat: this is my body." The translators of King 
James make it read : 66 Jesus took bread, and blessed 
it, and broke it, and gave it to His disciples." One 
can hardly fail to see here the intention to attack the 
Real Presence, and make our Lord to speak of the 
bread as bread only, after His benediction. 

Although this edition of King James has been gene- 
rally received among English Protestants, still it has 
not been regarded as an absolute authority among 
them. The different sects have had their own trans- 
lations and their own commentaries. There is a ver- 
sion of the New Testament, made by Campbell, Mc- 
Knight, and Doddridge, in which the words baptism 
and baptize are rendered by immersion and immerse. 



102 



Third Lecture. 



A new revision is now being made by scholars of 
the Church of England, and the principal Protestant 
churches here and abroad, on the ground of the in- 
correctness of the King James Bible in many respects. 
A writer in the North American Review says : 
" Beauty and antiquity of style are not the para- 
mount considerations in the question of Bible trans- 
lation. The truth is what we desire. All other ob- 
jects sink into insignificance in comparison with this. 
We seek a perfect translation of the Hebrew and 
Greek." " The work of the revisers has been a dou- 
ble one — to ascertain the genuine original text, and 
then to correct or modify the English translation." * 
The Rev. Dr. Hare, in the Episcopal General Conven- 
tion, New York, 1880, thus spoke : "He had no ob- 
jection to the pending resolution, though he firmly 
believed it would be with this revision of the author- 
ized version as it was with the revision which came 
forth in 1611. To this day that revision has never 
had the authority of Convocation. In 1662 it was 
adopted for the Epistles and Gospels of our great 
days, but it was never adopted for the Psalter ; it 
was never adopted for the passages of Scripture quot- 
ed in the Communion Office. So far from the edition 
of 1611 having been primarily the property of the 

* North American Review, November, 1880. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 103 

Anglican Church, as had been alleged, it had its ori- 
gin in Protestantism, and it did not come into gene- 
ral use for half a century after the time of its publi- 
cation, and then only because its superiority to the 
previous versions was so manifest that it could not 
but be recognized. This, he believed, would take 
place with the revision proposed in 1870." 

It is plain, then, from this brief outline, that there 
has never been a Protestant translation of the Scrip- 
tures which has been accepted by all as correct or 
without serious fault ; and that no version has ever 
been adopted by any ecclesiastical authority possess- 
ing any binding force. This, indeed, in Protestant 
eyes would give no weight ; but it demonstrates that 
the field is open to every individual, and that each 
one in the exercise of his private judgment must 
choose the translation to which he will go for the 
word of life. And as there is no perfect version in 
existence, nor one to which there are not many ob- 
jections, we find the true Protestant j)laced in a seri- 
ous dilemma. He needs the Bible for his salvation, 
and yet he cannot be sure that it can be found. 

2. There was less agreement among the Reformers 
as to the meaning of the sacred text and its inspi- 
ration, than in regard to the translations. Let us 
briefly notice their divergency on these two points. 
When once the Bible was subjected to the private 



104 



Third Lecture. 



interpretation of every individual, difference of doc- 
trine was the immediate and natural result. Lutlier 
first argued from the Scriptures against the existence 
of free-will, making, in fact, God the author of sin. 
He also assailed the sacraments, and taught the 
doctrine of justification by faith alone without works 
of any kind, and without the means of grace. 4 ' Be 
a sinner," says he, "and sin bravely, but believe 
more bravely and rejoice in Christ, who is the vic- 
tor of sin. We must sin as long as we are in 
the world." He attacked the Real Presence in the 
Holy Eucharist, and then towards the end of his 
life professed a theory of consubstantiation, deny- 
ing still any change in the bread and wine. 

His followers carried these teachings to their re- 
sult, and Caiistadt assailed the Real Presence, argu- 
ing that it was wholly destitute of Scriptural proof. 
He challenged Luther to a discussion, and they met 
in the Black Bear Inn at Jena. " There the argu- 
ment became animated and angry. While trans- 
gressing every law of propriety and decency, they 
discussed the Lord's Supper in a manner the most 
frivolous, and in language the most unbecoming. 
In closing they both pledged themselves to carry on 
the controversy in writing. ' Will you write openly 
against meV said Luther. ' Yes,' replied Carl- 
stadt, ' if it be agreeable to you ; and I shall not 



History of the Protestant Bible. 105 

spare you. 1 4 Good!' rejoined Luther; ' there is 
a liorin as an earnest.' 'May I see you broken on 
a wheel ! ' said Luther on taking leave of him. 
And ' may you,' retorted Carlstadt, ' break your neck 
before you get out of the city ! ' ' ' * Martin Bucer 
and Capito took his part against Luther in this 
Scriptural contest. 

In his conflicts with his own spiritual children 
the war waxed bitterly ; and constant appeals were 
made from Scripture to the writings of the Chris- 
tian fathers. In reply he condemned them and their 
interpretations of the sacred text. "All the fa 
thers," said he, "fell into error, and those of them 
that did not repent before dying are lost eternally." 
" St. Gregory knew very little about Christ or the 
Gospel, and was so superstitious as to be easily 
deceived by the devil." "St. Augustine often fell 
into error, and cannot be safely followed." " Jerome 
I regard as a heretic. He wrote many impious 
things, and deserves to be in hell rather than hea- 
ven." " Chrysostom is a sorry f elkrw, an empty de- 
claimer — a great puff of smoke and little fire." 
4 6 Basil is worthless ; he is a monk through and 
through, and to my mind he is of no weight what- 
ever." " Thomas Aquinas is a theological abortion, 

* Alzog, III 104. 



106 



Third Lecture. 



a fount of error, whence issue all the heresies that 
subvert Gospel teaching." 

Zwinglius, the co-Reformer of Luther, and the 
father of more spiritual systems, drew from the 
Bible a faith entirely different from that of his com- 
panion. He denied free-will and taught the total 
depravity of human nature. In so many words, he 
makes God the author of sin, in terms even stronger 
than those of Luther ; but he declared the sacra- 
ments to be empty signs, and denied any presence 
of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The Sacramenta- 
rians were his followers, and soon under their inspi- 
ration, the divine character of the Lord's Supper 
and the sacredness of baptism passed away. The 
sacramentarian controversy became most bitter, and 
led even to revolt and civil war. 

The Anabaptists carried this doctrine to its legiti- 
mate result, and held that infant baptism was an 
invention of the Papists, and had no sanction in 
Holy Scripture. These reformers became quite nu- 
merous, and a synod was called at Hamburg in 1536 
to devise means for exterminating them: The fol- 
lowing decree was made against them. " Whoever 
rejects infant baptism, whoever transgresses the 
orders of the magistrates, whoever teaches the com- 
munity of goods, whoever usurps the priesthood, 
whoever holds unlawful assemblies, whoever sins 



History of the Protestant Bible. 107 

against faith, shall be punished with death" This 
severity was, through the influence of Luther, 
visited upon those who in the exercise of their 
private judgment were interpreting Scripture, and 
who had in this matter an equal right with himself. 

Zwinglius justly replied to the intolerance of his 
co-Reformers: " See how these men, who owe all to 
the word, would wish now to close the mouths of 
their opponents, who are at the same time their 
fellow-Christians. They cry out that we are heretics, 
and that we should not be listened to. They pro- 
scribe our books and denounce us to the magis- 
trates." * 

In his turn, however, he became as fierce a bigot, 
and as intolerant a tyrant as his brethren. Menzel 
bears evidence that he declared against the Anabap- 
tists, and caused several of them to be drowned, f 

Calvin was another leader of the Reformation, who 
drew all his system of faith from the Bible. He 
taught the absolute predestination of the just to life, 
and of the unjust to death. The freedom of the 
will was thereby practically extinguished, and jus- 
tification was only an imputation of the righteous- 
ness of Christ. He affirmed that sanctifying grace 
has no connection with the visible sign of the sac- 



* Auclin., 411. 



t Menzel, II. 233. 



108 



Third Lecture. 



rament, and denied any change of tlie bread and 
wine in the Lord's Supper, teaching a sort of emana- 
tion from the Body of Christ at the moment of Com- 
munion. His teachings have been the foundation 
of the belief of many Protestant sects, which follow 
him to a greater or less degree to this day. When 
Calvin gained the ascendency in a portion of Ger- 
many, he turned upon the Lutherans, whom he 
named the sons of the devil.* More than a thousand 
Lutheran ministers were proscribed with their wives 
and children, and reduced to beg the bread of charity. 
Another Reformer, the superior in many respects of 
all, came forward with his Scriptural system, and 
has influenced the mass of Protestants as much as 
Luther or Calvin. Lselius Socinus, belonging to a 
noble family in Siena, was the author of a creed 
which his nephew, Faustus Socinus, more definitely 
promulgated. He denied the divinity of our Lord 
and the doctrine of the Trinity. According to him, 
original sin was the invention of theologians, and 
the sacraments were mere external ceremonies. His 
followers professed to be purely Biblical, and to 
follow the exact meaning of the inspired word. 
Their doctrine took shape in the form of a definite 
creed in a.d. 1579. 



* Abp. Spalding, I. 329. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 109 

It is unnecessary to dwell longer upon this point, as 
the variations of Protestant interpretation are self- 
evident. They are not only seen in the conflicting 
views of the first leaders of the Reformation, but in 
the history of the countless sects which have sprung 
from their teachings. One sect is equal in authority 
to another, possessing the same right to interpret 
Scripture, and wielding a power which no consistent 
Protestant can gainsay. Descending from the num- 
berless sects to individuals, we find almost as many 
interpretations of the Bible as tnere are men able to 
read it. Each one in his place is the supreme judge, 
not only having the privilege to decide the meaning 
of the sacred text, but obliged in conscience to do so. 

Let us notice the contradictions of some celebrated 
creeds, inasmuch as they are the confessions cf the 
faith of many, and the parents of other religious fa- 
milies. 

The Augsburg Confession, the original Protestant 
creed, a.d. 1530, teaches the Real Presence in the 
Holy Eucharist, as well as auricular confession. 

The Formula of Concord, a.d. 1576, reiterates the 
same doctrine. 

The Saxon Articles, 1592, teach the Real Presence 
in still more exact words. 

The Helvetic Confession, 1536, denies the Real Pre- 
sence, as does also the Catechism of Heidelberg in 1563. 



110 



Third Lecture. 



The same denial is made by the French Confessions 
in 1559 and 1581, and by the Belgic synod of the same 
year. The Scotch Creed, as well as the Articles of the 
Church of England, also reject the presence of Christ 
in the Holy Sacrament. 

Dr. Bollinger, in his "Church, and the Churches," 
dwells at length upon these variations of doctrine 
among the reformed believers in the Bible. We give 
his own words : 

"In the history of sects which are not sunk into an 
inert state of vegetation, it is common to find them 
proceeding by fits and starts from one extreme to the 
other ; and it happens inevitably that the emanations 
of mere caprice groping in the dark, or of individual 
narrow-mindedness, have to serve as substitutes for 
the necessary results of organic institutions. Thus it 
happened that the two main branches of the Ameri- 
can Puritans, the Presbyterians and Congregational- 
ists, being dissatisfied with their Westminster Con- 
fession, have introduced into their various congrega- 
tions or synods a number of whimsical or extravagant 
confessions of faith ; so that, according to the state- 
ment of the preacher Colton, some hundreds of these 
formulas may be found among the Presbyterians, and 
you can hardly go from one town to another without 
coming upon a new creed, notwithstanding the simi- 



History of the Protestant Bible. Ill 

larity of the sect. Colton, who filled the most influ- 
ential offices in the Presbyterian Church, relates that 
he himself has organized above fifteen churches, and 
introduced into each of them a confession of faith 
drawn up by himself, but which had to be modified 
every time, according to the degree of his knowledge 
and the momentary character of his views. . . . 

" Even those theologians who boast particularly of 
their faithful devotion to the Lutheran system are not 
orthodox. 'The fact is obvious to every one,' says 
Julius Muller, ' that among all the Lutheran theolo- 
gians who have lately published any comprehensive 
works in the domain of doctrines of faith, there is not 
a single one who does not consider the Lutheran sym- 
bolic books as requiring modification in some point or 
other.' And here come into consideration definitions 
of profound importance. 'For many years,' said Eh- 
renberg, at the Berlin General Synod, 6 he had been 
looking for a man who agreed in all points with the 
symbolic books of his confession, but as yet he had 
never found one. . . .' 

' ' The churches of the Reformation are in this pre- 
dicament : they cannot subsist without a solemn de- 
claration from their clergy and a settled doctrine ; 
and neither can they subsist if they have either the 
one or the other. On one side it is said : ' What can 
a church be from which every symbol has vanished ; 



112 



Third Lecture. 



what can it be but a Babel % 5 On the other side it is 
replied, and with perfect justice, too : ' A rigid bind- 
ing down to symbols, in the present state of theology, 
can only lead to hypocrisy and intolerable violence to 

conscience 5 

' ' Then in the year 1853 it was declared, at a meet- 
ing in Berlin, ' that the Angsbnrg Confession should 
be regarded as the standard and expression of a com- 
mon creed and doctrine. 5 This was the strongest and 
greatest effort at effecting a submission to a certain 
formula which had yet been made. The matter, how- 
ever, though seriously proposed, was not seriously 
meant, for even those who were present assenting 
to such a proposition, were thoroughly well aware 
that amongst themselves, and in all Germany, 
there was not a single theologian who did, in point 
of fact, accept all the articles of the Augsburg Con- 
fession. . . 

" And then, where 'the Union 5 is most firmly es- 
tablished, the authority of the symbolical books is ir- 
remediably ruined. At church assemblies and pasto- 
ral meetings it has recently been declared that in 
Prussia, according to the Tenth Article, a person is 
free to partake of the Lord's Supper in three different 
senses : in the Lutheran, or the Calvinistic, or in ac- 
cordance with the Union signification ; and there are 
others also who maintain that there is nothing to pre- 



History of the Protestant Bible. 113 

vent its being taken and understood in a fourth or a 
fifth sense. . . ." * 

Only a little while ago a synod of all the Presbyte- 
rians of the world was called, bearing the name of the 
Pan-Presbyterian Council. The resolutions of this 
council as regards articles of faith are evidence of our 
proposition : 6 ' Resolved, That this council appoint a 
committee with instructions to prepare a report to be 
laid before the next General Council, showing, in 
point of fact — 1. What are the existing creeds and 
confessions of the churches composing this alliance, 
and what have been their previous creeds and con- 
fessions, with any modifications thereupon, and the 
dates and occasions of the same, from the Reforma- 
tion to the present day. 2. What are the existing 
formulas of subscription, if any, and what have been 
the previous formulas of subscription used in those 
churches in connection with their creeds and confes- 
sions. 3. How far has individual adherence to those 
creeds by subscription or otherwise been required 
from the ministers, elders, or other office-bearers re- 
spectively, and also from the private members of the 
same. And the council authorize the committee to 
correspond with members of the several churches 
throughout the world who may be able to give inf or- 



* Dr Dollinger's " Church and the Churches," pp. 280-297 



114 



Third Lecture. 



iiiation ; and they enjoin the committee, in submit- 
ting tlieir report, not to accompany it either with any 
comparative estimate of those creeds or with any cri- 
tical remarks upon their respective value, expediency, 
or efficiency." 

The question of the inspiration of the Sacred 
Scriptures being also left to private opinion, we 
should look for all varieties of judgment as to the 
meaning and extent of the word. What, according 
to Protestants, is the sense in which the Bible is said 
to be inspired by the Holy Ghost ? This is a very 
important matter, upon which the authority of the 
written word depends. It is a strange fact that the 
early Protestant creeds contained no distinct teach- 
ing on this subject. They seemed to rest satisfied 
with the confession that the Holy Spirit was the 
author of the canonical books, without stating in 
what sense, nor to what extent the divine power was 
exercised. Did the Holy Ghost inspire every thought 
and word ; or was He simply the author of the sub- 
stance, leaving to the human writer the form of ex- 
pression? Or, again, did He only keep the writer 
from error in faith and morals, having no concern 
with all else that might be either history or mere 
opinion ? These questions were never answered, and 
the minds of the early Protestants wavered between 
the two extremes. Some went so far as to really 



History of the Protestant Bible. 115 

take from Holy Scripture its divine character. Lu- 
ther and Calvin seem to have inclined to the more 
strict theory of inspiration, which is well expressed 
by Hooker. His words are : " God so employed the 
Prophets in this heavenly work that they neither 
spake nor wrote a word of their own, but uttered 
syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their 
mouths." * Others held with confidence that this 
theory of immediate inspiration could not be justified 
by the Scriptures themselves, and was open to in- 
superable difficulties. The followers of Socinus con- 
sidered inspiration to be nothing more than an intel- 
ligent understanding, possessed by virtuous and up- 
right men under the guidance of God, who guarded 
them against the introduction of errors in matters of 
grave importance. This is the more general opinion 
at this day among Protestants who have not re- 
nounced altogether the belief in the divine charac- 
ter of the Bible. The theories of Spinoza, Schleier- 
macher, and Leclerc destroy entirely any proper in 
spiration of the Scriptures, and subvert the authority 
of the text. Mr. Jowett, in his essay on the interpre- 
tation of Scripture, thus proceeds : "For any of the 
higher or supernatural views of inspiration there is 
no foundation in the Gospels. There is no appear- 



* Hooker, III. 62. 



116 



Third Lecture. 



ance that the Evangelists or Apostles had any inward 
gift, or were subject to any power external to them, 
different from that of preaching or teaching, which 
they daily exercised ; nor do they anywhere lead us 
to suppose that they were free from error or infirmity. 
. . . The nature of inspiration can only be known 
from the examination of the Scripture. There is no 
other source to which we can turn for information ; 
and we have no right to assume some imaginary doc- 
trine of inspiration like the infallibility of the Roman 
Catholic Church. To the question, What is inspira- 
tion ? the first answer therefore is, that idea of Scrip- 
ture which we gather from the knowledge of it."* 
In the Church of England these views of Mr. Jowett 
have been declared by the highest tribunal to be con- 
sistent with the Anglican formularies. Thus, Dr. 
Lushington expressed himself as follows : " As to the 
liberty of the clergy to examine and determine the 
text of Scripture, I exceedingly doubt if it can be ex- 
tended beyond certain verses or parts of the Bible. 
I think it could not be permitted to a clergyman to 
reject the whole of one of the books of Scripture." 
While there has been and is no unity of opinion 
among Protestants in regard to the grave question of 
inspiration, the prevailing sentiment has been mov- 

* Jowett, " Essays and Reviews," pp. 345, 347. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 117 

ing towards its denial in whole or in part, and the 
German neology has held sway over the minds of 
many. 

There is neither space nor time now to further ex- 
amine this subject. It will be admitted that there is 
no fixed doctrine, and that even among those who call 
themselves orthodox, there are many who really be- 
lieve no proper theory of inspiration. As this is the 
vital point for those who profess that the way of sal- 
vation is in the reading and stndy of the sacred word 
by each individual, the religion of Protestants seems 
reduced to a very narrow basis, almost to nothingness. 
They not only do not certainly know what the word 
of God is, nor how it should be explained ; but they 
do not know how far it is inspired or to what extent 
it may be trusted. Geologists and men of science at- 
tack the Bible, and seemingly prove its inaccuracy 
and falsehood. They have little to reply, except to 
curtail their view of its inspiration, and stand by its 
purely moral teachings. Yet a book untrue in some 
respects is naturally declared unreliable in all. Dr. 
Colenso, an English bishop, denies the inspiration 
and the truth of the whole Pentateuch, and yet re- 
mains well recognized in his church. The common 
attitude of the Protestant . mind is to shrink before 
the infidel and meet him with liberalism. The plan is 
to ask for the Bible and Christianity as little as pos- 



118 



Third Lecture. 



sible ; and thus the remnant of dogmatism is soon 
shattered by the rationalist. Confused and uncertain 
views are no match for the progress of advanced 
thought. Modern reasoners deny the Biblical ac- 
count of the creation, and the unity of the human fa- 
mily, thus destroying the whole economy of grace in 
the redemption of Jesus Christ, the Son of man as 
well as the Son of Grod. 

The theory of evolution is also received by many 
Bible-readers, who strive to reconcile their theory of 
Holy Scripture with the so-called conclusions of sci- 
ence. The inspired word really gives way, and the 
dogmas of faith only linger as a sentiment in the 
heart, not as living principles in the soul. The mod- 
ern Christian is sure of nothing, neither of the written 
word nor of its inspiration. Where to him can speak 
the voice of his Creator and Redeemer ? 

IV. 

We will now glance at the progress and result of 
the system of evangelization by means of the Scrip- 
tures alone. According to the Protestant doctrine, 
the Bible ought to be presented, without note or 
comment, to every individual, who in his interpreta- 
tion of it should be influenced by no minister or 
teacher. This doctrine has not been faithfully car- 



History of the Protestant Bible. 119 

ried out ; and in many important respects Protestants 
have contradicted their own principles. They have 
issued translations notably incorrect, and they have 
accompanied the distribution of these translations by 
comments, and generally by the oral instructions of 
their missionaries. In so doing they have, by their 
own doctrine, done injustice to the recipients of their 
Bibles, who should have been left to their own private 
judgment, uninfluenced by the impressions of others. 
The heathen have as good a right to their views of the 
Gospel as the more favored children of Luther and 
Calvin. Missionaries should only go to those who 
have not Bibles, and deliver them without words. 
" They are easy to be understood," and contain the 
only rule of faith and practice. Nearly all the Pro- 
testant denominations are concerned in the diffusion 
of the Scriptures, though their ministers accompany 
them with widely differing interpretations. This is 
very confusing to the heathen, and manifestly unfair. 
If the teachers do not agree, how can their converts, 
who are naturally puzzled at the sight of one Bible 
and numberless systems of belief ? Let us, however, 
look at facts, and see what has been done for the 
evangelization of the world by the circulation of Pro- 
testant Bibles. 

Since the Reformation, Bible Societies have been a 
favorite mode of increasing the printing and diffusion 



120 



Third Lecture. 



of tile Scriptures. The Canstein Bible Institute, 
founded in 1712 at Halle, Germany, issued up to 1863 
5,273,623 Bibles and 2,630,000 Testaments. Several 
societies were formed in England and in the United 
States for the same purpose. The British and For- 
eign Bible Society, formed in 1804, has issued, up to 
1872, 63,299,738 volumes, and has promoted the print- 
ing of the Scriptures in two hundred languages. The 
American Bible Society was formed in New York, 
May, 1816, and its object is "to encourage a wider 
circulation of the Bible without note or comment." 
In lifty-six years its receipts w r ere $14,980,331 15, and 
it issued 28,780,969 volumes. The American Bible 
Union was organized in New York June 10, 1850. Its 
founders seceded from the other society when that 
body decided that "it was not its province or duty to 
revise the English Bible, nor to procure a revision of 
it from others." It has several times revised the Bible 
in whole or in part, and has published also transla- 
tions into foreign languages. It has issued over a 
million copies since its foundation.* These societies 
are still in active operation, printing Bibles with won- 
derful celerity, and selling them at noriiinal prices, or 
sending them gratuitously all over the world. We 
have before us the yearly report of the British and 



* See "Am. Cyclopedia," II. 616, 617. 



History of the JProtestant Bible. 121 

Foreign Bible Society for the year 1879-80. Its 
income for the twelve months was £213,374 14s. 
8d. Its payments were £193,539 12s. 7d. Its total 
issue of Bibles was 2,780,362, and from its organi- 
zation to date of report it has published 88,168,419 
copies. 

The American Bible Society, in its report of May 13, 
1880, acknowledges receipts for the year of $608,- 
342 28, and disbursements of 8595,013 81. It has 
printed or purchased 390,237 Bibles, 759,650 Testa- 
ments, and 216,026 parts of the Scriptures. It has a 
system of colportage for the distribution of its dif- 
ferent translations ; and has employed one hundred 
and seventy-seven persons to circulate the Bible in 
foreign lands. In the United States its agents visited 
567,357 families, and found 100,667 without any copy 
of the Scriptures. The plan of these and kindred 
societies is to send out their agents, who sell the Bi- 
bles if they can find purchasers, and if they cannot 
induce people to buy them, they give them away. 
Quite a little revenue is derived from this sale, which 
helps to support the colporters and the missionaries. 
It would be difficult to compute the number of Bibles 
which by means of such agencies have been sent 
through the world. This circulation of Bibles con- 
tinues everywhere to be the characteristic feature of 
Protestant missions. 



122 



Third Lecture. 



The first remark we have to make is that the trans- 
lations used have been often very imperfect, and 
therefore not proper copies of the inspired text. A 
moment's reference to well-known authorities will 
convince any candid mind that the Protestant ver- 
sions have signally failed in accuracy. According to 
their doctrine, any grave departure from the original 
vitiates the whole Bible and deprives the reader of 
the means of salvation. 

The Rev. Dr. Morrison, a missionary to the Chi- 
nese, thus speaks: "I edited the New Testament 
with such alterations as in my conscience, and with 
the degree of knowledge which I then possessed, I 
thought necessary." * 

This version of Dr. Morrison cost more than twenty 
thousand pounds, and has since been condemned as 
being imperfect by the Bible Society itself. 

The next version, of Dr. Marshman, was not much 
better. Malcolm says: "lam assured by missiona- 
ries and by Protestant gentlemen that neither Marsh- 
man' s nor Morrison's Bible is fully intelligible. "f 
It is said that Prof. Kidd invented a new word for 
God " for fear of identifying the doctrine of the Bi- 
ble with the system of Popery." % The Abbe Voisin, 

* Dr. Morrison's " Memoirs," II. 3. f " Travels," II. 218. 

% "Notices of Dr. Morrison's Labors," p. 34. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 123 

a Catholic missionary in China, published a French 
translation, by way of specimen, of a part of the 
Protestant Chinese version adopted by the Bible So- 
ciety. He thus writes: " The pen falls from my 
hand in witnessing the ignoble and sacrilegious man- 
ner in which our sacred books are travestied, dis- 
honored, and perverted. I defy the Chinese scholar 
who possesses the most exact knowledge of his own 
language so much as to guess what the translator in- 
tended to express, nor could I myself have done so if 
I had not been familiar with the inspired text which 
he professes to translate."* 

Mr. Taylor Meadows, Chinese interpreter to Her 
Majesty's Civil Service, in 1856 thus describes the 
real character of the translations: "Let the English 
Protestant reflect on the Book of the Mormons, and 
oil Mormonism as it is spreading in Great Britain, and 
he will obtain by no means an exaggerated notion of 
the contemptible light in which our badly-translated 
Scriptures and Christianity in China are regarded by 
the thorough Confucian, as a tissue of absurdities 
and impious pretensions which it would be lost time 
to examine." f 

The versions circulated in India were no better. 
"The style of the Telinga edition was so obscure and 

* " Annals of the Prop, of the Faith," IX. 109, 
t Marshall's " Christian Missions," I. 19. 



124 



Third Lecture. 



incoherent that it was almost impossible to compre- 
hend it, and a learned native, after examining it, said* 
he believed it to be a treatise on magic" 

"The Tamul version," says a Protestant clergy- 
man, "is really pitiful and deserves only contempt." I 

Dr. Carey executed or superintended translations of 
the Scriptures' in more than thirty -five languages or 
dialects, though he did not profess to have any 
knowledge whatever of more than six of them. 
"They have not all been tested," says Dr. Brown, 
"but those which have been, are so imperfect that 
they are now generally given up as of no great 
value." f 

The Abbe Goust writes that "owing to their 
monstrous errors and barbarous style, our sacred 
writings are thought to be the work of a madman. 
The pagans no sooner read two or three pages 
than they tear up the book or fling it away with con- 
tempt." % 

In Ceylon the version of the Bible translated by 
the Church of England missionaries at Cotta, accord- 
ing to Sir Emerson Tennent, "was described even by 
their own nominal converts as blasphemous." § 

"Two versions of the Scriptures," writes Lord 

* " Annals," III. 20. f Dr - Brown, " History," II. 71. 

% i( Annals of the Prop, of the Faith," I. 500. 
§ " Christianity in Ceylon," VI. 268. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 125 

Torrington, " are in existence, both provided by the 
funds of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the 
one by the Church of England, and the other by the 
Wesleyan missionaries ; but though their respective 
presses are within six months of each other, their 
versions are so different, and both of them apparently 
so unsatisfactory, that a youth who has been trained 
in the one cannot accommodate himself to the other, 
and a native, though very imperfectly acquainted 
with our language, finds that he understands the Bi- 
ble better in English than in either." * 

In New Zealand a Protestant writer tells us : " The 
attempt to turn a jargon like the Maori into a pure 
language is a decided failure, and the words they 
have had to coin are ludicrous examples of language- 
making ; very few Maoris understand it." + 

Precisely the same has been said by the missiona- 
ries to the Sandwich Islands : "It might have been 
better that their language had never been reduced to 
rules and writing, for very few books could be pub- 
lished in it." "Of the too celebrated Surinam Ne- 
gro-English version, of which even the Bible Societies 
appear to have been ashamed, we need not give any 
description. There are some forms of irreverence 
with which, except under the pressure of extreme ne- 



* Barrow, VI. 165. 



f Marshall, L 31. 



126 



Third Lecture. 



cessity, one may reasonably decline to make acqnain- 
tance. Even a Presbyterian writer, not easily of- 
fended by anything proceeding from such a source, 
complains of it as ' most ludicrous, and altogether 
inconsistent with that decorous and seemly garb in 
which the word of God should be presented to the 
public' " * 

Mr. Jowett, in his report to the Malta Bible So- 
ciety, says that 6 4 the Bishop of Scio, a truly learned 
man, regrets in behalf of his own nation the vulgar- 
ity of that version which has been printed for the 
Greeks." f 

It would be easy to multiply testimonies as to the 
inaccuracy of many of the Protestant translations. 
It really comes to this : that where the Bible Societies 
have been circulating editions with important errors, 
they have been distributing something else in place 
of the inspired word. In this connection we may 
add that even their own missionaries bear witness 
to the correctness of the Catholic versions, against 
which no accusations have been made. Dr. Wolff, 
one of their agents, admits that "the best transla- 
tions of foreign Bibles issued by our Bible Society 
are reprints from those made by the Propaganda at 
Rome." % 

* Marshall, I. 36. \ 1 1 Asiatic Journal, VI. 503." 

t Wolff, 44 Travels," p 182. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 127 

In 1818 the British and Foreign Society purchased 
1,500 copies of the ancient Armenian Testament from 
the Armenian Catholic College on the Island of St. 
Lazarus, Venice, and subsequently procured a larger 
number for distribution in Turkey. The Arabic ver- 
sion which the society formerly circulated in Syria 
was the Propaganda edition printed at Rome in 1671. 
The Ethiopic and Tartar versions were published long 
before Protestant missions began.* In the Chinese 
translation Mr. Medhurst admits that the Church an- 
ticipated the sects by more than two centuries. The 
same is true of the Cingalese, the Persian, the Rus- 
sian, the Polish, and all European dialects, as well as 
of the Coptic, Tamul, Annamite, Malayalim, and 
many other Oriental versions. + 

The Protestant ministers have generally availed 
themselves of the labors of the Catholic missionaries ; 
and some are sufficiently honest to acknowledge the 
superiority of their translations. This leaves them 
the more without excuse for any perversions or mis- 
translations of the inspired text. 

We now ask, What has been the result of all this 
enormous distribution of Bibles throughout the world ? 
How has this system of evangelization succeeded? 
What have the heathen done with the Scriptures so 



Neander, VII. 76. f Marshall, " Christian Missions," I. 52, 53. 



128 



Third Lecture. 



prodigally thrown among them ? How many have 
been converted to Christianity by this method % We 
shall endeavor to present briefly the statements 
and confessions of Protestants themselves, who cer- 
tainly are fair witnesses. The able work of Dr. Mar- 
shall on Christian missions furnishes us with abun- 
dant evidence that the propagandism by the Bible 
Societies has been a failure, and that the Scriptures 
have been in most cases literally and morally thrown 
away. 

Archdeacon Grant says: "The eagerness of the 
heathen to obtain the sacred volume cannot be traced 
to a thirst for the word of life, but to the secular pur- 
poses, the unliallowed uses, to which the Holy Bible, 
left in their hands, has been turned, which are abso- 
lutely shocking to any Christian feeling." * 

"They have been seen," says Dr. Williams, "on 
the counters of shops in Macao, cut in two for wrap- 
ping up medicines and fruits, which the shopman 
would not do with the worst of his own books." f 

"The number of books which Protestants distri- 
bute is immense," says Bishop Courvezy, a prelate 
well known to English travellers in the Indian archi- 
pelago, "but the use to which they are applied is 
very different from that which they were intended to 



* " Bampfcon Lectures," p. 93. f " The Middle Kingdom," II. 334. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 129 



serve. At Singapore I saw the walls of two houses 
entirely covered over with leaves of the Bible ; this 
profanation, however, is not greater than when they 
are employed to roll around tobacco and bacon. " * 

" You make one convert annually out of fifty thou- 
sand," said an educated Hindoo to Mr. Lang, "and 
that one an impostor. This is the result of preaching 
in the open air all through the country, and the dis- 
tribution of hundreds of thousands of books in the 
Hindostanee and Bengalee languages." f 

"At the capitals," says Captain J. B. Seely, "I 
have seen a number of translations in the various Ori- 
ental languages ; but in the provinces and towns I 
never, by application and enquiry, could hear of a 
copy of the Scriptures in the possession of a native:* 
; 6 1 have seen a Hindoo devoutly listen to a discourse, 
beg a tract, and, on his return to the village, leave it 
on the threshold of the temple, and fall down with his 
forehead on the floor and worship the image of 
Ganesa." J 

"The mere distribution of Bibles," says Dr. Mid- 
diet on, the first Protestant bishop in India, "will 
produce very little effect in promoting Christianity 
among the natives." § 

* " Annals," I. 107. f Lang's " Travels in India," p. 233. 

t " The Wonders of Elora," Seely, pp. 475, 524. 
§ Middleton's " Life," I. p. 377. 



130 



Third Lecture. 



"The Bible is read," says the Rev. W. Tracy, 
"not because it has any attractions in itself, but be- 
cause its perusal is the only condition of admission to 
the school, and ultimately to the golden Jiarvest be- 
yond. Its instructions are received listlessly, and 
speedily forgotten." * 

An Anglican missionary in Ceylon relates: "The 
people came around me in great numbers and held 
out their hands for the tracts. We distributed not 
less than three thousand. Some of these books 
were torn to pieces before our eyes, others were 
stuck upon the branches of trees. Some, more im- 
pudent than the rest, as soon as they had received 
them exclaimed: ' These are fine things for wad- 
ding for our guns when we go into the jungles to 
shoot.' "f 

In Africa the children of the negroes make kites of 
the leaves of the Bible, and the mission church in the 
Gaboon district in 1845 had only attracted eight na- 
tives. 

Mr. Duncan observes that ' £ a partial education, by 
merely reading the Scriptures, is only the means of 
making the natives more perfect in villany." \ 

Mr. Mansfield Parkyns tells of missionaries in 

* "S. India Miss. Conference," 174. 

f " Recollections of Ceylon," Rev. J. Selkirk, p. 419. 

\ " Travels in West Africa," p. 303. 



History of the Protestant Bible. 131 

Abyssinia who sit under a tent and distribute Bibles 
indiscriminately to all who happen from curiosity 
to come in. Speaking of the kingdom of Tigre, 
he says: " Of what use can Bibles be in Abys- 
sinia? First, who can read? And then comes the 
usual fact : the use to which the many Bibles given 
away in this country are commonly applied, is the 
wrapping up of snuff and such like undignified pur- 
poses." * 

Admiral Slade writes: "I have been a good deal 
among the Greeks, and often at Smyrna, but I have 
never seen any one of them reading the Bible, nor, do 
I believe, has any Englishman there." f 

" Bibles are given to the Turks, printed very ration- 
ally in the Turkish character, but one hundred and 
ninety-nine out of two hundred cannot read." 

"The Hebrews take the Bible with great pleasure, 
and, carefully destroying the New Testament, place 
the Old in their synagogues, sneering at the do- 
nors." 

u The Albanians make wadding for their guns of 
the leaves of the Society's Bibles." % 

In Russia " missionaries may introduce Bibles in 
any quantity, but let them only venture to attempt to 

* " Life in Abyssinia," pp. 153-155. 

f 4 ' Records of Travel," II. p. 476. 

X Admiral Slade, " Travels in Turkey," p. 518. 



132 



Third Lecture, 



convert, not a member of the Russian Church, but a 
heathen or idolater, to any form of worship but its 
own, and Siberia stares them in the face." * 

Italy, and especially Piedmont, have lately excited 
the hopes of English Protestants. "I pass every 
day," says the Times'* s correspondent, " a little book- 
stall under the Turin porticoes in the Via di Po ; its 
shelves are groaning under the weight of Bibles, but 
the old woman who offers them for sale has a perfect 
sinecure of it." 

In Germany, where millions of Bibles have been 
distributed, " there is no book," says Tholuck, "less 
studied than the Bible." 

In Switzerland " of every ten householders there is 
scarcely to be met one who now believes in God and 
Christ, or makes any use of the Scriptures." f 

Immense numbers of the Bible have been circulated 
among the Indian tribes of North America, with hard- 
ly any result. 

Thousands have been sent to South America and to 
Mexico with the purpose of converting Catholics. 
Dr. Olin, President of the Wesleyan College, hon- 
estly records of one of these operations "that it was 
an unsuccessful attempt to make some impression 
upon the native population, which ought to inspire 



* " Recollections of Russia," p. 23. 



t Marshall, I. 42. 



History of tee Protestant Bible. 133 

the Board with great caution in entertaining new pro- 
jects for missions among Catholics." 

" Such," says Dr. Marshall, " by the testimony of 
their own agents, have been the unvarying results, 
without so much as a solitary exception, at any time 
or in any part of the world, of that almost incredible 
dispersion of Bibles which the societies have poured 
out. Employed in all lands for the vilest purposes, 
despised by the more enlightened heathen for their 
vulgarity and incoherence, cast into the sea by Ma- 
hometans, not a trace remains, after a brief space, 
of the millions of books with which vague religious 
sentiment has inundated the world." * 

The accounts of the Bible Societies themselves give 
very little encouragement. While they tell us how 
many Bibles they have given away or sold, they have 
very few conversions to report to even their idea of 
Christianity. 

Dr. Bliss's account of the Bible work in the Levant 
agency of the American Bible Society has these dis- 
couraging remarks : " Scoffers have increased in num- 
bers and boldness. Men who still are called, and call 
themselves, Christians, say sneeringly, ' We know all 
about the Bible. It is a book of the past ; it is all non- 
sense. 5 On account of this epidemic of atheism the 

*'Marshall, 11 Christian Missions," I. 51. 



134 



Third Lecture. 



colporters have met with peculiar difficulties in their 
work. Time and again have they appeared a,t the 
Bible-house with woe-begone countenances and in- 
tense discouragement. Several new men have under- 
taken colportage, but have given it up on account of 
the difficulties. Two earnest men from the interior 
worked hard, on trial, for thirty days ; one sold only 
seven, the other ten copies, and, becoming disheart- 
ened, sought other employment. Kriker, from Meso- 
potamia, sold in two months sixty-six books, and 
then gave up the work as too trying to body and 
mind. A Jew sold nineteen books, and returned the 
rest of his stock to the depot." * 

The Rev. A. W. Clark, of Prague, writes: "In 
Post Street I met an avowed enemy of God's word. 
He asked me in almost diabolical tones : 4 Are you 
not ashamed of yourself to go about in these times 
with holy books — stupid nonsense % ' He then scream- 
ed at me : 6 You good-for-nothing fellow, you deceiver, 
you liar ! ' 

" An inn-keeper ridiculed the Bible, and remarked : 
' A glass of beer is my god.' A servant to whom I 
offered a Testament replied : ' Such a book is mere 
trash and good for nothing.' " 

Mr. Blackford writes from Brazil: "The above is 

* " Report American Bible Society, 1880, " p. 101. 



History jof the Protestant Bible. 135 

an outline of the colporter work done during the 
year. I am sorry the results are still so far out of 
proportion with what the outlay ought seemingly to 
produce." 

Rev. H. P. Hamilton reports from Mexico that 
" we have frequent calls from people who, although 
they do not care to buy, desire to look at our Bibles, 
and ask about the amount of distribution." 

"In Uruguay and the Argentine Republic nearly 
one hundred thousand copies of the Scriptures have 
been circulated, though opposition, and cavils, and 
jeers have been encountered." 

"The district of which Tripoli is the centre has ever 
been a hard field for Bible work. The readers are 
few in the smaller towns, and the colporters find it 
impossible to sell their wares, and are compelled often 
to be content with reading the word to those whom 
they find gathered in coffee-shops and other places of 
resort." 

" The Ansairizieh have no fondness for the Scrip- 
tures, and few of them know how to read. The col- 
porter, after toiling for a week or two in a moun- 
tain village, could not report the sale of a single 
copy." 

Rev. Mr. Hastings writes from Ceylon: *"It is a 
day of small things with us. Within the last year 
two or three tracts have been published against Chris- 



136 



Third Lecture. 



tianity, one of which attempts to show from the 
Bible itself that it teaches and encourages the gross- 
est immoralities." 

Rev. C. R. Mills reports progress from Chinii in 
these words : " On these tours we rather avoided the 
large towns. Our little donkey carried beds ind 
clothing for two of us, besides books. I know, there- 
fore, that the books distributed this year are ^iot 
tumbled down in a heap somewhere, but are actually 
scattered in six hundred villages. This work is, of 
course, only seed-sowing. But we believe the seed 
is actually sown, not dumped by the wayside." 

" The Chinese," says Dr. Farnham, " are not stretch- 
ing out their hands for the Gospel."* 

These extracts show that, with all the immense out- 
lay of money and labor, very little is accomplished. 
The missionaries are all talking of the seed-time, but 
very few reap any fruit ; and the accounts given of 
conversions are not only scarce but very unsatisfac- 
tory. 

The reports of the agents of the British and For- 
eign Bible Society are likewise very discouraging. 
We will give only a few citations : 

' 'Formerly," says an experienced colporteur in 
France, U I used to have frequent discussions about 

* 4 ' Report American Bible Society, 1880." 



History of the Protestant Bible. 137 

the Bible, and sold a copy now and then ; but now 
they do not even take the trouble to say ' no.' When 
I offer the Bible, they only turn their backs with con- 
tempt." 

" In Belgium the result of our labors is not always 
visible to human observation. The good seed re- 
mains under ground until the spring-time." " In 
one poor little village we sold pretty well, till one of 
the villagers showed his book to the cure. Immedi- 
ately we had the whole village after us, wanting us to 
take back our books, and we had to hasten away with 
all speed." The same thing occurred in the country 
on the banks of the Meuse, and Rev. M. de Faye 
laments that he has been able to effect so little during 
the past year. 

In Austria the agent reports a falling-off in his 
work. "It is less than he had hoped for, less than 
the total of the last year by some thousands." 

"Often our colporters come into houses where we 
find Bibles bought some years ago ; some are lying 
on the shelf covered with dust." 

"Not much has been accomplished in Servia this 
year. There is little opposition, but much indiffer- 
ence." 

In Hungary "there is a diminution of seven thou- 
sand copies from the number issued in 1878. The 
judgments of God are abroad, and many are they 



138 



Third Lecture. 



whose hearts are hardened. But your agent is able 
to discover symptoms which justify a better hope." 
"The colporters are said to have done what they 
could." 

In Poland "there is a considerable falling-ofl from 
the last and former years." 

There is the same discouragement in Roumania, 
"where there was much hard and disappointing work, 
and where infidelity and ungodliness prevail." 

In Italy " oar information leads to the same disap- 
pointing conclusion. With rare exceptions the rich, 
and the noble, and the educated refuse to lament to 
our mourning, or to dance to our piping. Godly sor- 
row and Gospel joy alike leave them unmoved. Even 
the colporters think it quite a wonder if they sell a 
Bible to a Roman." 

" In the district round Ancona there are only gleams 
of light. An evangelist had settled at Rimini, but 
made little impression, and has gone elsewhere. In- 
credulity is great and is extending." 

In Spain "there is no perceptible advance. The 
prophets prophesy falsely, the priests bear rule 
through their means, and the people love to have it 
so. This year two or three so-called Protestant 
pastors have betrayed the cause of truth and right- 
eousness. ' To-day ' is the Gospel challenge to Spain, 
and with almost incurable levity she answers, 'To- 



History of the Protestant Bible. 139 

morrow. 5 The name of Protestantism is hateful to the 
Spaniards, and the results fall far below the hopes of 
the laborers." 

"In Cadiz our colporter, Hernandez, was accused 
of grave and shameful sins by a Protestant pastor. 
After some time the matter was brought before the 
Presbytery, and investigated for six hours. The re- 
sult was that the colporter vindicated his character, 
and the pastor himself was convicted of practices 
which have caused his suspension for twelvemonths." 

"The extracts from Mr. Stewart's report from Por- 
tugal give the lights and shades which brighten or 
chill his work. The spiritual result is known com- 
pletely only to Him who sees in secret." 

In Norway and Sweden " there is a considerable 
falling-oif of thousands of copies," and the same is 
reported of Russia and its provinces. " She is now 
passing," says the report, " through much tribula- 
tion ; may she thereby enter more fully into the 
kingdom of God." 

" There is no real liberty of conscience in Persia. 
Under this evil system the land is made empty and 
waste ; its joy is darkened and its mirth is gone. 
Enquiry repressed becomes unbelief concealed, and a 
new evil grows out of the old." 

' - In Crete the bishops and clergy are ruled by the 
Patriarch, and they follow his example in a course 



140 



Third Lecture. 



of opposition which the agent characterizes in the 
strongest terms, involving both the Patriarch and the 
Holy Synod of Greece in the severest condemnation. 
The number able to read he sets down as not more 
than two per cent." 

" There is no awakening on the part of the Greek 
Church. Prelates and priests go on in a dull round 
of empty ceremonies, indifferent to the signs of the 
times, and hostile to the circulation of the Scrip- 
tures." 

In Syria the colporter relates that " on coming 
to a Maronite village the people would neither sell 
him bread nor give him lodging, so that he was 
obliged to go to another village, where a Moslem 
sheltered him." 

" At Acre a careless fellow, who said he wished to 
buy a Bible in order to scatter its leaves along the 
street, was summoned by the Greek bishop, and se- 
verely reprimanded for such profanity." 

" Romish missions largely equipped are pushing 
to the very heart of Africa, and disputing with Pro- 
testants the possession of the field. Contrast, if not 
conflict, there must needs be." 

From Madagascar a missionary writes: "X must 
confess that another year's experience in the two 
large districts under my charge, with constant and 
intimate intercourse with the people, has added to 



History of the Protestant Bible. 141 

my conviction that a considerable portion of our 
church-members, even of some years' standing, have 
not yet readied to the soul and kernel of Chris- 
tianity. Attendance at the Sunday services, espe- 
cially at the monthly Sacrament, and the occasional 
use of Scriptural words and phrases, the meaning of 
which, for the most part, they do not comprehend, 
are the religious husks with which too many rest 
content." 

In India "the native mind is like some vast mo- 
rass. It cannot bear the weight of the solid truths 
which Christianity rests upon. It absorbs the teach- 
ing given to it. Lesson after lesson sinks and dis- 
appears in this great intellectual sponge" " A con- 
ference is to be called at Calcutta to secure una- 
nimity in the selection of terms with which to set 
forth the name of the Divine Being in the Santali 
Scripture." 

"The heart of China is hidden from us, but be- 
neath her placid face there are feelings at work, of 
which we see the signs at the extremities of her vast 
diameter." "A few years ago the Scriptures were 
all given to the Chinese without any charge. Such 
a rule being established, they are the last people to 
wish for a change. Nay, they have thought there 
must be some mistake on our part in wishing them 
to purchase, even at a low price, seeing that your 



142 



Third Lecture. 



great wealth was as great as ever. So late as three 
years ago the income from sales did not amount to 
two dollars. The present statistics show the amount 
to have gone up to seventy -six dollars." 

U A Japanese heard for the first time of God's 
mercifulness, and bought the Bible, and promised to 
believe in Christ. Afterward he tried to persuade 
his wife to Christ, but she would not, and at last 
they were about to quarrel, when I calmed them, 
telling him it is not good to lead a person to God 
so shortly, but persuade her by degrees." "May 
God in His mercy make this little one a thou- 
sand." 

The final section of the report says that " the col- 
porters have sowed by the waters of bitterness. In 
Holland an unbelieving rationalism, with the law at 
its back, thrusts the Bible out of the schools ; and 
that, too, in the land which gave nurture to Erasmus. 
In Belgium a godless free-thought refuses to dis- 
tinguish between the claims of Heaven and those 
of men, and is alike indifferent to Christ and Anti- 
christ." * 

These extracts are well worth consideration, inas- 
much as they confess the practical failure of the 
system of evangelism by means of Bible distribu- 

* " Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society for 1880." 



History of the Protestant Bible. 143 

tion. The Bibles are not circulated without com- 
ment, but in most cases are accompanied by the 
oral explanations of teachers who labor only to dis- 
seminate their own views. Yet conversions to any 
lasting species of Christianity are so few, that any 
candid mind may well ask if all this vast outlay of 
money be not a foolish waste, and a sad deception 
of the zealous Protestant. The heathen with their 
Bibles are in many cases worse than when they had 
not seen them, more perplexed as to truth, and more 
immoral. Protestantism has a negative power to 
break down a system of belief, but no positive 
strength to build and sustain a creed. This has been 
demonstrated not only among natives of foreign lands, 
but here at home, where Bibles are abundant on every 
side. The various sects are practically without creeds 
to bind their members. And what is Christianity with- 
out a certain creed % The most radical opinions were 
received with applause in the late Pan-Presbyterian 
Council, the most conservative of Protestant bodies. 
We copy the following from a daily journal : 

" Professor Flint seemed to intimate that it was 
quite possible that the future of theology might mo- 
dify, or at least clarify, these troublous dogmas. 
Such an assertion, coming from so eminent an autho- 
rity, was what troubled the strict constructionists and 
gave comfort to the liberals. It certainly revealed 



144 



Third Lecture. 



the fact that there are still some points in that pillar 
of faith, the Westminster Catechism, that some of the 
clergy are not at all clear about. Professor Flint, 
while claiming that it tended to the spread of agnosti- 
cism to deny the possibility of any further light, or 
that investigation in theology can go no further ; by 
inference at least opened the way for permitting the 
doubting Presbyterian to remain inside the fold. 
The Rev. Principal Grant hurled back the accusation 
that Dr. Flint had sneered. ' I detected no sneer, sir, 
in Professor Flint's address. He is not the man to 
sneer. He has the courage of his opinions, and he 
will say boldly what he believes without any sneering. 
What he meant to convey was, that if we try to reach 
doubt by church discipline, instead of by an effort for 
broader, clearer thought and a deeper search into the 
truths of theology — if thus we try to reach, doubtless 
we shall lead the way to agnosticism.' Here there 
was applause, and none applauded louder than did 
many of the Scotch delegates. Principal Grant then 
made a bold assault. Think of the advance of libe- 
ralism when a Scotch Canadian Presbyterian faces the 
leaders of this church from all over the world and 
says these words : ' We do err if we say the Westmin- 
ster Catechism is beyond the region of enquiry. 
Creeds grow, and how can there be growth unless 
there is liberty of thought.' " 



History of the Protestant Bible. 145 

The New York Independent thus remarks upon 
Dr. Skinner 5 s speech at the same assembly : 

" ' The American Church, ' he declared, 'is a unit 
on inspiration, on the Adamic covenant, and on the 
nature of the atonement.' We grieve to say that 
Dr. Skinner said what he knew is not true. 

"He proceeds throughout his whole speech to show 
that also on the burning question of inspiration the 
Presbyterian Church does and must hold unitedly to 
entire inspiration of all the sixty-six books of the 
Bible, and that in argument with unbelievers, as well 
as in teaching its own members. The passage above 
quoted we had in view. It states what is untrue. On 
these subjects the church is not a unit. It does not 
hold, even by a large majority, with Dr. Skinner. It 
does not discuss them, however, because it has learn- 
ed to tolerate differences, not because there are no 
differences." 

The Independent is certainly correct. Protestants 
do not agree in regard to the inspiration of the Bible, 
in which they trust as their rule of faith. This is the 
plain result of many years of Bible reading. In this 
great country, more than among the heathen, we be- 
hold the effects of the system of Bible evangelism. 
Infidelity of the boldest kind stares us in the face, 
and the children of the Reformation have no answer 
to make, because they have no certain ground on 



146 



Third Lecture. 



which to stand. Where there is no fixed, unalterable 
faith there is no armor for defence or attack. 

The following language of the New York Sun, Oc- 
tober 30, 1880, is a fit conclusion of our argument 
from the testimony of non-Catholics : 

u The modern assault on Christianity is directed 
against its foundations. The infidelity of this time 
denies the supernatural origin of Christianity. It 
even goes further and denies the supernatural alto- 
gether, or rejects it as something not within the power 
of man to discuss with intelligence. Appeals to Bib- 
lical authority are therefore of no avail against it ; for 
what is the Bible to these modern infidels except an 
ancient record, an ancient anthology, a collection of 
legendary tales, or the history of an outcast and bi- 
goted people, to which is added a more or less spuri- 
ous account of the career of a revolutionary religious 
enthusiast ? 

"The Bible is no more to them than the Koran or 
the mystical writings of pagan India. They count it 
as the product of intellectual childhood, and deem it 
an impertinence to ask men of developed minds to 
base their reasoning on it as the book of inspiration. 
With them inspiration and superstition are about the 
same thing. They would no more think of looking 
on the Bible as an infallible guide, as the final reposi- 
tory of human knowledge concerning infinite and 



History of the Protestant Bible. 147 

occult things, and as the full revelation of the Divine 
Mind and Heart, than they would think of building 
another Pyramid of Cheops as an astronomical obser- 
vatory ; for that is what Mr. Proctor says it was put 
up for. They say they are not children to be held 
captive by fairy tales, or savages to be frightened by 
hobgoblins. 

" When the ministry understand — and some of 
them seem now to be beginning to understand it — 
that even where modern infidelity has not got to this 
extreme, it is all inevitably tending to that end, they 
will be better prepared to meet the enemy. We have 
in the advance the philosophers who treat the mind 
and soul as only a product of the brain and nervous 
system — as something no more immortal than the rest 
of us. We have the school who would trace man up 
from inanimate matter through the lowest scale of 
animal existence. We have the philosophers who 
discuss the origin and development of religion as they 
would a case of insanity. They make men the manu- 
facturers of their own gods — the worshippers of quali- 
ties in themselves which they have magnified into 
attributes of deity, constructing the god to fit the 
mould the limits of their imaginations have made. 
As to a man, he is a creature whose characteristics 
are determined by his inheritance of qualities acted 
on by his surroundings. 



148 



Third Lecture. 



' ' Far behind these philosophers, but really on the 
same road, are the doubters of inspiration ; the men 
who reject church dogmas ; those who turn away 
with repugnance from the idea of hell, whether it can 
be proved out of the Bible or not ; those who deny 
the efficacy of prayer ; the agnostics, the Know-No- 
things of religion ; and the people w^ho are unable to 
say whether they believe in religion or not. Of such 
as these the churches themselves are full, and the log- 
ical result of their doubts is the denial of an autho- 
ritative supernatural religion. 

"If they are not converted to faith, they are liable 
to become infidels of the stalwart variety. They will 
get further away from Christianity the longer they 
reason about it. They give up parts of the Bible and 
parts of the creed, become critics instead of devout 
believers, and then the whole Bible and the whole 
creed go. Hell passes away for them, and then hea- 
ven is dissolved, and finally they look into the future 
and see no immortality. That is the logical progress 
of modern infidelity, and many thousands of men and 
women, here and in Europe, have either taken the 
steps or are entering upon the road." 

With these words we close our brief view of the 
Holy Scriptures in the hands of Protestants. Every 
pretension of the Reformers is as false as the prin- 
ciples they enunciated. There is no ground of truth 



History of the Protestant Bible. 149 

on which they may stand ; and the inspired word of 
God, taken from its legitimate place and made the 
text-book of party strife, loses all its divine character 
and sinks to the level of the human mind. One by 
one the articles of Christian faith disappear, and the 
Bible itself is at last rejected, where the swelling 
waves of a broad atheism threaten to engulf all things 
sacred. 

There is no safety but in a return to that one 
and unchangeable Church which is " the pillar and 
ground of revealed truth," which preserves and ex- 
pounds the written word, while it ever speaks to all 
the ages the manifold wisdom of God. In her alone 
can the truth be found. By her alone can the faith 
of Jesus Christ be taught. To her portals let the true 
and sincere hasten, for the eternal light dwells upon 
her towers, and she is " the city of the Lord, the Sion 
of the Holy One of Israel." 



Lecture Fourth. 

THE BIBLE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



Lecture Fourth. 



THE BIBLE IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



" All Scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to 
correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, fur- 
nished to every good work." — 2 St. Timothy iii. 16, 17. 



E have seen the inspired Scriptures in the hands 



of men, taken from their proper place, and rob- . 
bed of their dignity and divine character. We will 
now behold them in the hands to which the Holy 
Ghost entrusted them, where alone they are safe from 
the attacks of unbelief, where alone they can speak 
the message of their Divine Author. We shall see 
the place which they hold in the Catholic Church, 
which received them from God, which has carefully 
preserved them, and testifies to their authority and 
inspiration. The brief view to be presented in this 
lecture will close our argument, and demonstrate that 
Protestantism, with all its professions, has betrayed 
and ruined the Bible ; while our holy religion stands 
unchanged in its accord with written and oral tradi- 




154 



Fourth Lecture. 



tion, and is therefore the faith once delivered to the 
saints. While, according to the principles of the Re- 
formation, the Sacred Scriptures cannot logically be 
supported ; while facts of history testify to the just 
conclusions of reason ; " the pillar and ground of the 
truth " remains unmoved, and on this foundation the 
inspired writings fulfil their mission, display the won- 
ders of the economy of grace, and draw faithful hearts 
to the deeper knowledge and love of God, our Re- 
deemer. In the Catholic Church they rest securely 
where no one can deny their divine authority or call 
in question their inspiration. Here, where faith is 
fixed and unchangeable, the voice of God speaks, and 
no one can gainsay His will. Here they are the trea- 
suries of devout science, the fountains of faith, hope, 
and love, the response which the written word makes 
to the living oracles of faith. Here they live in their 
true life and bring forth fruit unto holiness, while 
through them the Holy Spirit acts upon faithful 
hearts. 

The purpose of this lecture leads us, then, to con- 
sider, first, the authority on which the Holy Scrip- 
tures rest ; secondly, the testimony of the Church in 
regard to the canon ; thirdly, the Catholic doctrine in 
regard to the inspiration of the sacred books ; and, 
lastly, the proper use of the Bible in accordance with 
faith and piety. 



The Bible in the Church 



155 



I. 

The Holy Scriptures rest entirely upon the autho- 
rity of the Church, which, in its infallible teaching, 
commends them to us as from God. 

As we have seen in our criticism upon the Protes- 
tant doctrine, two things are necessary for the vindi- 
cation of the sacred character of the canonical books : 
the proof of their authenticity, and the certainty of 
their inspiration. Upon the first of these requisitions 
human aid may be available, and learning may be of 
use. For the difficult questions which at once present 
- themselves no man is fully competent, and the testi- 
mony of others must be relied upon. But authentici- 
ty does by no means establish the canonicity of a 
book nor admit it into the roll of writings indited by 
the Spirit of God. The inspiration of the author 
needs to be confirmed by an unerring testimony, and 
therefore by God Himself. He must speak and testi- 
fy to the books which bear the marks of His hand ; 
and there is no divine external testimony but that of 
the Catholic Church. She is the living organ of 
Christ on earth, the only organ authorized to speak 
for Him. ' c He that heareth you heareth Me. " * " If 
any man will not hear the Church, let him be to thee 
as the heathen and publican." f An external witness 



* St. Luke x. 16. 



t St. Matthew xxiii. 17. 



156 



Fourth Lecture. 



is absolutely necessary ; and if the Church be not ac- 
cepted, there is no possible evidence of the divinity of 
the Bible. "I, for my part," says St. Augustine, 
" would not believe the Gospel, unless the authority of 
the Catholic Church moved me to it. v * These words 
of the great Christian Father not only express the 
ground of his own belief, but enunciate a principle 
of universal application. The Scriptures cannot es- 
tablish themselves, since they themselves are in ques- 
tion ; and by such an argument the simplest rules of 
logic would be violated. Besides the infallible teach- 
ing of the Church, there are only two ways in which 
the testimony of Christ and His apostles can be made 
known to us — namely, by the Scriptures alone, or by 
mere human tradition. The witness of the Scriptures 
cannot be taken, for the reason just given, that their 
authority is in question. And if it were admitted 
that one part of the inspired word were divine, the 
proof of that portion would need to be first rigidly es- 
tablished. Then the passages of the New Testament 
which refer to the Old only refer to single quotations, 
and do not by any means cover the whole canon, 
much less decide the value of disputed books. The 
text from St. Paul's Epistle to St. Timothy, in which 
he declares all inspired Scripture to be frojn Grod, does 

*St. Augustine, T. VIII. contra Ep. Manichsei. 



The Bible in the Church. 



157 



not intimate to which of the sacred writings he ap- 
plies this tribute. It does not assert his own epistles 
to be inspired, much less refer to books not then in 
existence. Hence it is evident that no proof of 
weight can be gathered here. The inspiration of 
many books of the Old Testament, of the Gospels of 
SS. Mark and Luke, of the Acts of the Apostles, of 
the Epistles not wTitten, of the Apocalypse, cannot 
be demonstrated by any sufficient testimony of the 
Scriptures. 

Tradition, taken as a merely human and historical 
argument, is also entirely insufficient to establish the 
inspiration of each and all of the sacred books ; in 
truth, it will not suffice for those which Protestants 
have consented to retain. An absolute certitude is 
here required, since it is a question of faith, and for 
ttoem the great and only question. For, that tradi- 
tion, in this critical and human respect, should fur- 
nish any reasonable ground of certitude, it is necessary 
that it should be unanimous, so that there should 
have been at no time a dissension of any moment, any 
variety of opinions, or any denial of any portion of 
the received canon. History testifies that there has 
not been such unanimity, that the Jews themselves 
did not agree as to all the books of the Old Testa- 
ment, and that until the action of the Church there 
was question among the Christian Fathers as to the 



158 



Fourth Lecture. 



canonicity of even some of the books of the New Tes- 
tament. Then, to those who deny the authority of the 
Church, history is only the record of liuman acts, and 
the heretical sects are to be accepted with their tradi- 
tions. Many such Christian sects denied one or other 
of the inspired waitings. The Manichseans rejected 
the books of Moses as indited by the spirit of evil. 
The Gnostics refused to believe in the divine charac- 
ter of the Psalms. The Ebionites had their own Gos- 
pel in place of that of St. Matthew. The Marcionites 
received only a mutilated version of St. Luke, and re- 
jected many of St. Paul's epistles. By others the 
Gospel of St. John was condemned as the work of 
heretics. There were also books claiming to be in- 
spired, spurious Gospels and Epistles, which were ac- 
cepted by many. As we have seen, the original Pro- 
testants were not united as to the canon of Holy 
Scripture, so that nowhere and at no time does mere 
human tradition furnish any certain rule by which to 
distinguish the true from the false Scriptures. 

In addition to this, it may be said that Protestants 
have explicitly denied the authority of tradition, and 
can therefore never rely upon it to establish any point 
of faith. 

The testimony which can establish the inspiration 
of any book of Scripture must be an external one 
Avhich cannot deceive. A subjective proof which 



The Bible in the Church. 



159 



varies with. each, individual can never be made the 
foundation of a revelation. This divine fact cannot 
be demonstrated from the sublimity or divinity of the 
text, nor from the internal relish of its teachings, nor 
from the private revelation of the Holy Ghost made 
to each one. 

Admitting the high character of the truths and ar- 
guments of the Bible, we only show that the sacred 
books contain things supernatural and sublime, or 
that the writers were men of holiness and noble sen- 
timents ; we do not thereby prove that God was the 
author of the books themselves. Nothing more can 
be strictly deduced from this argument. 

Protestants generally admit the weakness of the 
evidence drawn from the internal relish of the Scrip- 
tures. This relish is not universal, neither does it ap- 
ply to all the parts of the inspired word. It depends 
entirely upon the condition and disposition of the 
reader, who is not in the same mood at all times. 
Thus Michaelis writes : 1 6 An interior sensation of the 
effects of the Holy Spirit, and a conviction of the 
usefulness of these writings to sanctify and purify 
the heart, are very unreliable proofs. As to this inte- 
rior sensation, I frankly admit that I have never felt 
it ; and those who experience it are no more worthy 
of envy nor nearer the truth, since even Mahometans 
feel it in the reading of their books. Pious senti- 



160 



Fourth Lecture. 



ments can be excited easily by the writings of philo- 
sophers, by works purely human, or even by doc- 
trines founded upon error." * There are writings 
counted inspired by Protestants which do not pro- 
duce this relish, even to the degree that may be ex- 
perienced from some uninspired books. 

As for the doctrine of a private revelation to each 
individual, taught by some of the Calvinists, and em- 
bodied in their confessions of faith, it is wholly with- 
out foundation. It is more difficult of proof than the 
truth it seeks to demonstrate. Where is the evidence 
of such a revelation which shall make known to each 
one in his turn which are the books written by the 
influence of the Holy Spirit ? While there is no pos- 
sible proof except the assertion of the individual, 
such a doctrine makes the Holy Ghost contradict 
Himself. There is only one faith, as there can be but 
one God, and faith cannot be anything private or per- 
sonal to be formed in individual minds by* study ; 
but it is of necessity public and objective, and to it 
as externally manifested the faithful must submit 
their intellects and hearts. The Divine Revealer is 
the author of nature ; He cannot contradict, in the 
economy of salvation, the attributes of His being nor 
the work of His hands. Moreover, if the Holy Spirit 



* Michaelis, "Int.," III. § 3. 



The Bible in the Church. 



161 



be the author of such private revelations to single 
believers, He is the author of strange and contrary 
doctrines, which everywhere divide the followers of 
the Reformation. He is responsible for the illusions 
of the Anabaptists, the fearful propositions of Cal- 
vin, the extravagances of George Fox, or the ravings 
of Swedenborg. All these, manifestly coming from 
the interpretation of a private spirit, confute each 
other, and by their contradictions show that they are 
not of God. 

It remains, therefore, that the simple truth be stated. 
The Catholic Church, by authority which she pos- 
sesses from God to speak His word, is the only witness 
as to the inspiration or canonicity of the sacred books. 
If she were not on earth fulfilling her mission, there 
would be no possible way of knowing the Scriptures 
or recognizing their divinity. They who reject her 
are absolutely without certitude upon this great and 
important question. She speaks by the Vicar of 
Christ, her infallible head, and by oecumenical coun- 
cils in union with him. There can be no doubt as to 
her voice nor as to the authority which she claims 
among men. 

The Redeemer and the Revealer, whose mystical 
body she is, speaks in and through her. Her divine 
mission is established by the miracles and prophecies 
which support the fabric of Christianity ; and the 



162 



Fourth Lecture. 



whole revelation of Christ stands or falls with her. 
' ' All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. 
Going, therefore, teach all nations, and behold I am 
with yon all days, even to the consummation of the 
world."* ' 6 Thou art Peter; and upon this rock 
will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." f Such has been the constant 
belief of all Christians from the time of Christ to the 
period of the so-called Reformation. The authority 
of the Church was never disputed, except by here- 
tics, who, by their denial of the verities of faith, 
were placed beyond the pale of Christianity. " We 
are of God," says St. John. "He that knoweth 
God heareth us ; he that is net of God heareth us 
not. By tills we know the spirit of truth and the 
spirit of error." % 

"Where the Church is," says St. Irenseus, "there 
is the Spirit of God ; and where the Spirit of God is, 
there is the Church and every grace ; but the Spirit 
is truth." § 

"We are not, therefore," says Origen, "to give 
heed to those who say, ' Behold, here is Christ,' but 
show Him not in the Church, which is filled with 
brightness from the east even to the west, which 
is filled with true light, is the pillar and ground of 



* St. Matthew xxviii. 18-20. t St. Matt. xvi. 18. 

% 1 St. John iv. 6. § St. Irenaeus, " Adv. Hseres.," III. c. 24. 



The Bible in the Church. 



163 



truth, on which, as a whole, is the whole advent of 
the Son of man/' * 

In like manner are the words of St. Cyprian : " Who- 
soever he be, and whatsoever he be, he is no Chris- 
tian who is not in Christ' s Church. "We ought not 
to be curious as to what he teaches, since he teaches 
without the Church." f 

" The Catholic Church," says Lactantius, u is the 
only one that retains the true worship. This is the 
source of truth ; this is the dwelling-place of faith : 
this the temple of God which whosoever enters not, 
or from which whosoever departs, is an alien from 
the hope of life and eternal salvation." % 

The Christian Fathers, all without exception, rely 
upon the judgment of the Catholic Church for the 
absolute certitude of the divinity of the different 
books of Holy Scripture, and make appeal to no other 
authority. Thus the Council of Toledo, in the year 
400, defines its faith : " If any one shall say or believe 
that other Scriptures besides those which the Catho- 
lic Church has received are to be esteemed of autho- 
rity, or to be venerated, let him be anathema." § 

" Learn also diligently, and from the Church" 

* Origen, "Comment, in Matt,," I. 30. 
\ St. Cyprian, Ep. III., ad Antonianum. 
% Lactantius, " Divin. Inst.," IV. c. 30. 
§ See " Int. in Script. Sac," Rev. Dr. Ubaldi. 



164 



Fourth Lecture. 



says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, " which are the books of 
the Old Testament, and which of the New, and read 
not to me anything of the uncertain books. Those 
only meditate on earnestly which we read confident- 
ly in the Church. Far wiser than thou, and more 
devout, were the apostles and ancient bishops, the 
rulers of the Church, who have handed these down. 
Thou, therefore, who art a child of the Church, do 
not falsify what has been settled ; but take and hold 
as a learner, and in profession, that faith only which 
is now delivered to thee by the Church." * 

Catholics of the present day are in precisely the 
same position as those of the early ages. The condi- 
tions of faith have never changed ; the office of the 
Church has never ceased. Upon her infallible autho- 
• rity alone we rest, and from her hands we have re- 
ceived the inspired word of God, which we know, by 
her unerring voice, to be the work of the Holy Spirit. 
Guided by the same divine influence which illumined 
the sacred writers, she gives to us the books and 
parts of books which are divine, and settles the 
canon of Holy Scripture in its entirety. 

II. 

The testimony of the Catholic Church in regard to 
the canon of Scripture. 

* St. Cyril. Jeru., Catech., IV. v. 



The Bible in the Church. 



165 



Under this division of our lecture we propose to give 
briefly the history of the canon in the Church, and 
her final action concerning it. The sacred books 
were always in the highest veneration among Chris- 
tians, and were received as inspired by the individual 
churches which possessed them. Through times of 
persecution and the pressure of gentile fury they 
were carefully preserved, and their holy teachings 
made known to the converts who embraced the faith. 
But there were spurious Gospels and books of doubt- 
ful authority, in regard to which great caution was 
necessary. 

Concerning the canon of the Old Testament the 
Jews themselves were not always agreed. There 
seems to have been no determined rule among them, 
by which the inspired books could be distinguished 
from profane writings, before the time of Esdras and 
Nehemias. Then, after the return from the captivity 
in Babylon an authentic collection was made, and 
probably by Esdras as its principal author. This 
canon was approved by the prophets and leaders of 
the synagogue, though it was by no means closed 
in such a sense that nothing could be added to it. 
This seems to be the general opinion of both Jews and 
Christians ; and there is no certain evidence of any 
later canon than that of Esdras, either among the 
Jew^s of Palestine or those of Alexandria. This col- 



166 



Fourth Lecture. 



lection of Esdras did not contain the books called 
deutero-canonical, which were not in the Hebrew 
text. This canon passed from the Jewish Church to 
the Christian, not only sanctioned by the testimony of 
the prophets, but also by our Lord and His apostles. 
With this canon also came the deutero-canonical books, 
which were, with some question, generally accepted 
as inspired. This appears from the testimony of 
ecclesiastical writers, and the history of the Eastern 
and Western churches. They were well known to 
the Jews at the time of our Lord, and were contained 
in the Alexandrine version, which was in general use 
before Christ, and which the primitive Church re- 
ceived commended by Him and His apostles. The 
action of the Church in regard to the scriptures both 
of the Old and New Testament settled all doubt as 
to the inspiration of the deutero-canonical books. 
Cardinal Franzelin, in his work upon the Holy Scrip- 
tures, thus sums up the history of the controversy : 
6 ' First these books were received and sanctioned by 
the use and practice of the Church, even to the be- 
ginning of the fourth century. Then came the dis- 
cussion in regard to their inspiration among the doc- 
tors of the Church, with the comparison of the Hebrew 
canon, until the decrees of the African councils and 
the Supreme Pontiffs Innocent I. and Gelasius caused 
them to be universally received, so that in the mid- 



The Bible in the Church. 



167 



die ages there was not a vestige of the controversy. 
Finally the solemn definition of the Church excluded 
for ever the possibility of doubt." * 

The Rev. Dr. Ubaldi, in his most able and exhaust- 
ive work npon the Holy Scripture, argues for the 
authenticity of the canon of the Council of Mcsea, 
which includes the deutero-canonical books among 
the inspired writings, f But if this canon be genu- 
ine it has not been of universal reception, although 
the proof in its favor is very strong. 

As regards the canon of the 'New Testament there 
has been also some controversy, though not general, 
nor of great moment. The books in regard to which 
there was discussion were the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
the Catholic Epistle of St. James, the second Epistle 
of St. Peter, the second and third Epistles of St. 
John, the Epistle of St. Jude, and the Apocalypse 
of St. John. Here the doubt among ecclesiastical 
writers was rather negative than positive, and con- 
cerned principally the genuineness of the epistles. 
The Epistle to the Hebrews was never doubted in the 
East, and, though controverted by some writers in the 
West, was generally reckoned in the sacred canon. 
These doubts arose from private controversies with 
heretics, who sought to abuse the language of St. 

* Franzelin, " De Divinis Scripturis," XIV. 
t Ubaldi, "Ilit. in Sac. Script.," II. 233-242. 



168 



Fourth Lecture. 



Paul to the support of their errors. The controversy 
respecting the Apocalypse was longer and more grave, 
arising principally from the disputes of Eastern doc- 
tors, and especially from the example of Dionysius 
of Alexandria, who first among the orthodox writers, 
ventured to reject this book and to argue against its 
authenticity from intrinsic reasons. 

This short outline of the history of the various 
parts of the canonical Scriptures not only shows the 
possibility of difference of opinion among Christians, 
but the necessity of the action of the Church in a 
matter so essential to faith. 

In deciding the canonicity of the sacred books, 
the Church has also, by her supreme authority, re- 
jected those which were spurious. 

There are certain books to which reference is made 
in the Old Testament. It may be of interest briefly 
to notice them : 

"The Book of the Wars of the Lord. 95 Numbers 
xxi. 14. 

u The Book of the Covenant." Exodus xxiv. 7, 
4 Kings xxiii. 2. 

"The Book of the Just." Josue x. 13, 2 Kings i. 
18. 

"The Book of Nathan the prophet." 1 Paralipo- 
menon xxix. 29, 2 Par. ix. 29. 

"The Book of Gad the seer." 1 Par. xxix. 29. 



The Bible in the Church. 



169 



"The Book of Samuel the seer. " 1 Par. xxix. 29. 
"The three thousand Parables of Solomon." 3 
Kings iv. 32. 

' ' The Book of Addo, the prophet, and his Vision 
against Jeroboam." % Par. xiii. 22, ix. 29, xii. 15. 

"The Book of Ahias the Silonite." 2 Par. ix. 29. 

"The Book of Semeias the prophet." 2 Par. xii. 
15. 

"The Words of Jehu, the Son of Hanani." 2 
Par. xx. 34. 

"The Words of Hozai." 2 Par. xxxiii. 19. 

"The Book of the Words of the days of Solomon." 
3 Kings xi. 41. 

"The Book of the Words of the days of the Kings 
of Juda." 3 Kings xiv. 29, 2 Par. xxxiii. 18. 

"The Acts of Ozias, written by Isaias the son of 
Amos." 2 Par. xxvi. 22. 

"The Descriptions of Jeremias the prophet." 2 
Mach. ii. 1. 

"The Book of the days of the priesthood of John 
Hyrcanus." 1 Mach. xvi. 24. 

"Five Books of Jason of Cyrene." 2 Mach. ii. 
24. 

These books in great measure are lost, except those 
portions which are supposed to be incorporated in 
the canonical Scriptures. Some Christian writers, 
and among them St. John Chrysostom, thought them 



170 



Fourth Lecture. 



to have been divinely inspired, and that they were 
allowed to pass away because their use was simply 
for the Jewish economy and not for the Church of 
Christ. The more general opinion, however, is that, 
so far as their substance is not contained in the canon- 
ical books, they were simply human writings. Some 
of these lost books are probably found under a differ- 
ent name and form in the Scriptures. The first two 
books of Kings are supposed to have been composed 
by Samuel himself from his own commentaries, and 
those of Nathan and Gad. 

In the New Testament "the prophecy of Enoch, 
the seventh from Adam" is referred to by St. Jude, 
i. 14. In Colossians iv. 16 St. Paul writes : "When 
this epistle shall have been read with you, cause that 
it also be read in the church of the Laodiceans, and 
that you read that which is of the Laodiceans." 
This, however, may refer to a letter written by the 
Laodicean Christians, or to another of the epistles 
of St. Paul written from Laodicea. It does not 
necessarily imply another epistle from the hand of 
the apostle. 

Among the apocryphal books are those which are 
worthy of praise and useful for instruction, which, 
indeed, were counted by many as inspired, and were 
found in some ancient versions of the Bible. The 
positive decision of the Church alone has settled the 



The Bible m the Church. 



171 



question of their canonicity. Even in this brief 
sketch it may be well to enumerate them, as it shows 
how entirely we must depend upon the divine eccle- 
siastical tradition : 

The Prayer of Manasses, or the appendix to 2 
Paralipomenon. # 

The Third and Fourth Books of Esdras. 

The Preface to the Lamentations of Jeremias. 

The Prologue to the Book of Ecclesiasticus. 

The Appendix to the Book of Job, found in the 
LXX. Version. 

The Allocution of the wife of Job, also found in 
the LXX. Version. 

Psalm 151, found in some copies of the LXX. 
Version. 

The Prayer of Solomon, an appendix to the Book 
of Ecclesiasticus. 
The Third and Fourth Books of the Machabees. 
The Epistle of St. Barnabas. 

The First Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians. 

The Book of Hernias the Pastor. 

All these books are to be found in some editions of 
the Scriptures, and were accounted by some of the 
Fathers as inspired. 

The following writings are not found in any of the 
copies of the Bible, and are not reckoned as authen- 
tic, while some are undoubtedly spurious : 



172 



Fourth Lecture. 



The Epistle of Abgarus, the King of Edessa, to our 
Lord. 

The Response of our Lord to Abgarus. 

Three Epistles of the Blessed Virgin Mary, one to 
St. Ignatius, one to the Florentines, and another to 
the Messanenses. * 

An Epistle of St. Paul to Seneca the philosopher. 

Although the genuineness of these writings be de- 
nied, yet they are pious in sentiment, and contain no 
word contrary to faith. 

Among the apocryphal books condemned and 
spurious, which have been principally used by here- 
tics for the support of their errors, are : 

The Testament of Adam ; the Book of the Daugh- 
ters of Adam ; the Book of the Penitence of Adam ; 
the Apocalypse of Adam, and the Precepts of Adam 
to his son Seth. 

The Gospel of Eve. 

The Prophecy of Enoch. 

The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. 

The Testament of Moses, with the Apocalypse or 
Assumption of Moses. 

The Testament of Job. 

The Book of Ugias the giant. 

The Psalter of Solomon. 

The Ascension and Vision of Isaias. 

The Apocalypse and Vision of Elias. 



The Bible in the Church. 



173 



There is little to be said in regard to these books. 
They certainly are apocryphal, and many of them 
are lost. The prophecy of Enoch is not genuine, and 
is filled with errors. It is probable that St. Jude 
referred to another book (v. 14) which does not 
exist, or that the original prophecy was afterwards 
corrupted. 

Among the apocryphal books of the New Testa- 
ment are found writings of the same class : 
The Second Gospel to the Hebrews. 
The Gospel of Marcion. 

The First Gospel of St. James, the brother of our 
Lord. 

The Gospel of the Infant Saviour. 

The Arab Gospel of the Infancy. 

The Gospel of Thomas. 

The Gospel of Nicodemus. 

The History of Joseph the Carpenter. 

The Gospel of Thaddeus the Apostle. 

The Gospel of Matthias the Apostle. 

The Gospel of St. Peter. 

The Gospel of St. Andrew . 

The Gospel of St. Bartholomew. 

The Gospel of the Twelve Apostles. 

The Eternal Gospel. 

The Gospel of Apelles. 

The Gospel of Basil. 



174 



Fourth Lecture. 



The Gospel of Cerinthus. 

The Vindication of the Saviour. 

The Death of Pontius Pilate. 

The History of Joseph of Arimathea. 

The Acts of the Apostles. 

The Acts of Peter and Paul. 

The Acts of Paul and Thecla. 

The Acts of Barnabas. 

The Acts of Philip the Apostle. 

The Acts of Andrew, of Andrew and Matthias, of 
Thomas, of Matthew, of Bartholomew, of Thaddeus, 
of John. 

The Book of the Apostolical Canons. 

There are also apocryphal epistles of St. Paul to the 
Laodiceans, of St. Peter to James, and of St. John 
to one sick of the dropsy. 

There is also the spurious Apocalypse of St. John, 
one of St. Peter, one of St. Paul, one of St. Bartho- 
lomew, one of St. Thomas, and one of St. Stephen 
Protomartyr. 

Some of these books are named and rejected in the 
decree of Grelasius upon the canon of Holy Scripture. 

We have taken the time and space to enumerate 
these writings, partly useful, partly pernicious, 
which have been, by the authority of the Catholic 
Church, excluded from the sacred canon, not only 
for the interest which many will feel in the history, 



The Bible in the Church 



175 



but also to indicate the divine character of that work 
which belongs to the Church in her supreme magis- 
tracy. Among so many books, who but the Spirit of 
God could indicate the true and the false ? Upon 
whose testimony could we rely for an infallible judg- 
ment ? The word of Grod alone can rightly authenti- 
cate the Scriptures which were inspired by His Spirit. 

We shall now add a brief notice of the action of 
the Church in regard to the canon of Holy Scripture. 
Before the action of the councils or of the Supreme 
Pontiff, there are catalogues given by the Fathers and 
ecclesiastical writers. These catalogues are not per- 
fect, and give only the received opinion among the 
early Christians. The oldest catalogue known is 
that of Papias, or Caius, probably as old as the second 
century. In this catalogue the Book of Wisdom fol- 
lows the Second Epistle of St. John, while the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, that of St. James, the Third of St. 
John, and the Second and Third of St. Peter are 
omitted. 

Melito of Sardis omits Esther and JSTehemias. Cyril 
and the Council of Laodicea omit the Apocalypse. 

The apostolic canons enumerate Judith, three books 
of Machabees, Ecclesiasticus, and two epistles of Cle- 
ment. The Athanasian synopsis omits Esther and 
admits Baruch, the Song of the Three Children, and 
the History of Bel and the Dragon. Prior to the 



176 Fourth Lecture. 

close of the fourth, century there is not a single cata- 
logue of the Scriptures which wholly accords with 
the canon admitted by Protestants. * In the year 
397 a council was held at Carthage, at which St. Au- 
gustine assisted. It gives at length the list of the 
Scriptures to be held canonical, and founds this list 
upon the received tradition. In this canon are found 
precisely the books judged sacred by Innocent I., 
a.d. 405, and all the writings which, though approved 
by the Church, have been rejected as apocryphal by 
Protestants. 

The canon of the Mcene Council, to which we have 
already referred, is exactly the same as that of the 
Council of Trent. The letter of Innocent I., a.d. 405, 
gives also the same catalogue, with the condemnation 
of certain false Gospels and Epistles. The Prophecy 
of Baruch is included, as was usual then, under the 
name of Jeremias. In this decree the Supreme Pon- 
tiff does not propose anything new, but gives the re- 
ceived and established tradition of the Church, and 
his predecessors in the Holy See. 

At the end of the fifth century, in a council of 
seventy bishops at Rome, a.d. 495, Pope Gelasius, in 
a solemn decree, gives the canon of the inspired 
books. His list is precisely that of Innocent I., ex- 



* Waterworth, " Origin of Anglicanism," p. 220. 



The Bible m the Church. 



177 



cept that he enumerates one book of Esdras and one 
book of the Machabees ; yet there is no doubt that 
this is only to exclude the third book, which is apo- 
cryphal. In the text of Harduin we find, however, 
enumerated "two books of Esdras and two books of 
the Machabees." 

The same canon is found among the constitutions 
of the Apostolic See, published as an appendix to the 
works of St. Leo. 

From the close of the fifth century this same canon 
of Scripture seems to have been followed throughout 
nearly the whole world, and almost every writer up- 
on the sacred books accepts it as unquestioned. 

In tli 3 (Ecumenical Council of Florence, which 
closed a.d. 1442, the decree of Eugene IV., the sa- 
cred council concurring, sets forth the canon as pro- 
claimed by Innocent I. and Gelasius, and afterwards 
by the Fathers of Trent. On this occasion the deute- 
ro-canonical books were solemnly defined to be a part 
of the inspired word of God, and in the argument 
against the Greeks were explicitly quoted. The 
Machabees were cited for their testimony in favor of 
the doctrine of purgatory, and Wisdom and Ecclesi- 
asticus for the procession of the Holy Ghost from the 
Son. 

It only remains to give the decree of the Council of 
Trent, April, 1546 : 



178 



Fourth Lecture. 



"The sacred and holy, oecumenical, and general 
Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy 
Ghost, the three legates of the Apostolic See presid- 
ing, keeping this always in view : that, errors being 
removed, the purity of the Gospel be preserved in the 
Church ; which Gospel, before promised through the 
prophets in the Holy Scriptures, our Lord Jesus 
Christ first promulgated w r ith His own mouth, and 
then commanded to be preached by His apostles to 
every creature, as the fountain of all, both saving 
truth and moral discipline ; and seeing clearly that 
this truth and discipline are contained in the written 
books, and the unwritten traditions which, received 
by the apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or 
from the apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictat- 
ing, have come down to us, transmitted, as it were, 
from hand to hand ; following the examples of the 
orthodox fathers, receives and venerates with an 
equal affection of piety and reverence all the books 
both of the Old and New Testament, seeing that one 
God is the author of both. And it has thought it 
meet that a list of the sacred books be inserted in 
this decree, lest a doubt may arise in any one's mind 
which are the books that are received by this synod. 
They are as set down here below : Of the Old Testa- 
ment, the five books of Moses — to wit, Genesis, Exo- 
dus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy ; Josue, 



The Bible in the Church. 17 ( J 

Judges, Ruth ; four books of Kings, two of Parali- 
pomenon, the first book of Esdras, and the second, 
which is called Nehemias ; Tobias, Judith, Esther, 
Job, the Davidical Psalter, consisting of a hundred 
and fifty psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Can- 
ticle of Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Isaias, 
Jeremias,* with Baruch, Ezechiel, Daniel, the twelve 
minor prophets — to wit, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, 
Jonas, Micheas, ISTahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Ag- 
gseus, Zacharias, Malachias — two books of the Macha- 
bees, the first and the second. 

u Of the New Testament, the four Gospels, according 
to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ; the Acts of the 
Apostles, written by Luke the Evangelist ; fourteen 
Epistles of Paul the apostle, one to the Romans, two 
to the Coninthians, one to the Galatians, to the Ephe 
sians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians, two to 
the Thessalonians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, to 
Philemon, to the Hebrews ; two of Peter the apostle, 
three of John the apostle, one of the Apostle James, 
one of Jude the apostle, and the Apocalypse of John 
the apostle. 

" But if any one receive not as sacred and canonical 
the said books entire, with all their parts, as they 
have been used to be read in the Catholic Church, 

* The holy synod under Jeremias includes the Lamentations. 



180 



Fourth Lecture. 



and as they are contained in the old Vulgate edition, 
and knowingly and willingly contemn the traditions 
aforesaid, let him be anathema, Let all, therefore, 
understand in what order, and in what manner, 
the said synod, after having laid the foundation of 
the confession of faith, will proceed, and what testi- 
monies and authorities it will mainly use in confirm- 
ing dogmas and in restoring morals in the Church." 

The same belief of the Catholic Church was solemn- 
ly declared at the (Ecumenical Council of the Vati- 
can, April, 1870 : 

"It is known to all that the heresies which the 
Fathers of Trent condemned, and which rejected the 
divine authority of the Church to teach, and, instead, 
subjected all things belonging to religion to the judg- 
ment of each individual, were in the course of time 
broken up into many sects ; and that, as these dif- 
fered and disputed with each other, it came to pass at 
length that all belief in Christ was overthrown in the 
minds of not a few. And so the Sacred Scriptures 
themselves, which they had at first held up as the 
only source and judge of Christian doctrine, were no 
longer held as divine, but, on the contrary, began to 
be counted among myths and fables. 

"The supernatural revelation, according to the be- 
lief of the universal Church, as declared by the holy 
Council of Trent, is contained in the written books, 



The Bible in the Church. 



181 



and in the unwritten traditions which have come to 
ns as received orally from Christ Himself by the 
apostles, or handed down from the apostles taught 
by the Holy Ghost. And these books of the Old and 
New Testaments are to be received as sacred and can- 
onical, in their integrity and with all their parts, as 
they are enumerated in the decree of the same coun- 
cil, and are had in the old Vulgate Latin edition. 
But the Church does hold them sacred and canonical, 
not for the reason that they have been compiled by 
human industry alone, and afterward approved by 
her authority ; nor only because they contain revela- 
tion without error, but because, having been written 
under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have 
God for their author, and as such have been delivered 
to the Church herself. 

" If any one shall refuse to receive for sacred and 
canonical the books of Holy Scripture in their in- 
tegrity, with all their parts, according as they were 
enumerated by the holy Council of Trent, or shall 
deny that they were inspired by God, let him be 
anathema." 

III. 

The Catholic doctrine in regard to the inspiration 
of the Sacred Scriptures. 
In this portion of our lecture we propose briefly to 



182 



Fourth Lecture. 



recall the teaching of the Church as to the inspira- 
tion of the canonical books, and its exact meaning. 
In what sense must we believe that the sacred writ- 
ings are the work of the Holy Ghost ? 

The holy Council of Trent, whose decree we have 
just rehearsed, declares that "the saving truth and 
moral discipline are contained in the written books 
and the unwritten traditions which have come to the 
Church by the dictation of the Holy Spirit," and that 
"one God is the author of both," and that the "can- 
onical books in all their parts must be received" as 
divine Scripture under pain of anathema. 

The same doctrine is contained in all the decrees of 
the Roman Pontiffs, or of councils which touch the 
subject of the inspired word. 

The Fifth General Council, a.d. 553, in condemn- 
ing the error of Theodore of Mopsuesta, because he 
had asserted that the Books of Solomon were not 
written by prophetical grace, assumes the writer to 
have been under the special influence of the Spirit of 
God. He had also rejected the Book of Job, saying 
that a wise pagan had written it, thus speaking 
" against the Holy Ghost, who wrote it with him." 

In like manner he denied the prophetical dictation 
to the author of the Canticles. These condemnations 
speak the mind of the council, that the inspired 
books were written under the dictation of the Spirit. 



The Bible in the Church. 



183 



The decree of Pope Gelasius, a.d. 495, already 
cited, affirms the Scriptures to have been ' ' written or 
made by the operation of God." 

In the profession of faith proposed by the Synod of 
Carthage in the ordination of bishops, accepted by 
Leo IX., and still in the Roman Pontifical, are these 
words : "I believe that one God and Lord Almighty is 
the author of the Old and New Testament, of the 
Law, the Prophets and Apostles." 

So the canon of the Council of Toledo, a.d. 447, 
framed from the dogmatic epistle of the Pope, de- 
clares anathema to any one who shall say "that one 
is the God of the Old Law, and another the God of the 
Gospels." 

In the creed proposed by Innocent III. to the Wal- 
denses, a.d. 1210, faith is demanded in "the one 
Lord of the New and Old Testament, who, a Trinity, 
created all things from nothing." 

The profession of faith proposed by Clement IY. in 
the (Ecumenical Council of Lyons, a.d. 1274, declares : 
u We believe one God to be the author of the New and 
Old Testament, of the Law, and the Prophets, and 
the Apostles." 

Similar to this was the language of the bull of Eu- 
gene IY. in the Council of Florence, a.d. 1441 : "The 
Holy Roman Church professes one and the same God 
as the author of the Old and New Testament, that is, 



184 



Fourth Lecture. 



of the Law, the Prophets, and the Gospels, since by 
the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit the holy men 
of each Testament spoke, whose books she receives 
and venerates." 

In the Vatican decrees the word inspiration is di- 
rectly expressed, and its conception more explicitly 
stated: " This supernatural revelation is contained 
in the written books and unwritten traditions accord- 
ing to the universal faith of the Church." " These 
books the Church holds sacred because they were 
written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and 
have God for their author, not because they were com 
piled by human industry and then approved, nor even 
because they contain the revelation of God without 
error." So the council pronounces anathema to any 
one who shall deny "that the entire books, in all their 
parts, were divinely inspired." 

The Church having thus pronounced her decision 
in regard to the inspiration of the canonical books, 
it is evident that she teaches that the sacred writers, 
whose agency was employed by God, acted under the 
dictation of the Holy Ghost. Nothing less than this 
can be gathered from the words of the decrees, and espe- 
cially from the exact language of the Vatican Council. 

The Scriptural writers themselves also testify that 
they were under the direct influence of the Divine 
Spirit. 



The Bible in the Church. 



185 



"Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Write 
thee all the words that I have spoken to thee in a 
book."* 

"And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great 
book, and write in it with a man's pen." f 

U I fell upon my face, and I heard the voice of one 
that spoke. And He said to me : Son of man, stand 
upon thy feet, and I will speak to thee. % And the 
Spirit entered into me, and after that He spoke to 
me." 

Thus St. Peter addresses the apostles: "Men, 
brethren, the Scripture must needs be fulfilled which 
the Holy Ghost spoke before by the mouth of 
David." § 

So our Lord speaks to the Jews: "Search the 
Scriptures, for you think in them to have life ever- 
lasting ; and the same are they that give testimony of 
me." || 

To the same effect are the words of St. Peter and St. 
Paul : "Prophecy came not by the will of man at any 
time ; but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the 
Holy Ghost." 1 

"All Scripture inspired by God is profitable to 
teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice." ** 

* Jeremias xxx. 2. f Isaias viii. 1. \ Ezeehiel ii. 1, 2. 

§ Acts i. 16. || St. John v. 39. f 2 St. Peter, i. 21. 

** 2 St. Timothy iii. 16. 



186 



Fourth Lecture. 



"I was in the Spirit," says St. John, " on the Lord' s 
day, and heard behind me a great voice, saying: 
What thou seest write in a book, and send to the 
seven churches." * 

The uniform practice of the Catholic Church has 
been to venerate the books of Scripture in all their 
parts as the work of the Spirit of Gk)d. The language 
of the Christian Fathers is a manifest evidence of 
this belief and veneration. St. Clement, in his first 
Epistle to the Corinthians, writes: "Diligently ex- 
amine the Scriptures, which are the true oracles 
of God." f Such are also the words of St. Irenseus : 
" Knowing well, because the Scriptures are perfect, 
since they were spoken by the Word and His 
Spirit." X 

Clement of Alexandria, after reciting passages of 
the Old and New Testament, argues : " I can bring 
you innumerable Scriptures, of which not a jot or tit- 
tle shall pass away, for the mouth of the Lord, the 
Holy Ghost, has spoken them." § 

St. Athanasius affirms "that the words of Scripture 
were written by the divine influence ; that the sacred 
books are fountains of salvation, and that the Holy 
Spirit was in the writers of them." || St. Cyril oi 

* Apocalypse i. 10, 11. f Chap. xlv. \ " Contra Haer./' II. 28. 
§ " Strom./' II. || " Epist. Fest 39. 



The Bible in the Church. 187 

t 

Jerusalem says that ' ' the Scriptures were dictated by 
the Spirit of God, and that He is their author." * 
St. John Chrysostom uses this language : " All that is 
in Scripture we must thoroughly examine ; for all are 
dictated by the Holy Ghost, and nothing is written in 
vain." "Not an iota, not a point is there in Scrip- 
ture in vain." f 

St. Gregory the Great says : "The author of the 
book is the Holy Ghost. He, therefore, wrote these 
things who dictated them to be written. He Himself 
wrote who inspired them in the act of writing. " $ 

In order to understand better the doctrine of the 
Church, thus stated by her supreme councils and 
sustained by the Scriptures and the Fathers, it will 
be well, even in this brief discourse, to define the 
meaning of inspiration, and thus to see precisely 
what we are required to believe. 

Inspiration signifies the action of the Divine Spirit 
upon the human intelligence and will, whereby any 
one is impelled to speak or to write in some special 
way designed by God. The agents so inspired are 
impelled to write what God reveals, suggests, or wills 
that they should write. If there be suggestion only, 
then the things which the Holy Spirit wills to be writ- 

* Catech., I. 6, IV. 34. 

t Horn. XXXVI. in S. Joan. Horn. XXI. et XLII. in Gen. 
% Moral, in Job 



188 Fourth Lecture. 

i 

ten are brought to mind. If there be revelation, then 
truths which could not naturally be known, which 
are contained in the divine intelligence, are unfolded 
to the mind of the writer. Revelation does not neces- 
sarily imply inspiration, nor does inspiration imply 
revelation. So also all revelation is suggestion, but 
not all suggestion revelation ; because much that may 
be suggested might be of the natural order, and al- 
ready known by reason or history. But inspiration, 
as applied to the sacred writers, implies that assist 
ance and help of the Holy Spirit which, though not 
in any way interfering with the liberty or natural 
gifts of the agent, impels him to execute the work di- 
vinely proposed, and excludes all liability to error. 
Thus it is certain that in Holy Scripture there can be 
no falsehood or error, and that God is the author of 
the inspired books. * It is, then, in the mind of the 
Church, not sufficient to hold that the inspiration 
vouchsafed to the sacred writers concerns only those 
parts of the Scripture which treat directly or indirect- 
ly of faith and morals. Such an opinion would de- 
stroy the divinity of the canonical books, leaving them 
open to many errors of fact, and to the possibility 
of so construing them that God could not be their 
author. We have seen in our former lecture how 



* See Essay by Cardinal Manning. 



The Bible in the Church. 



189 



many of the more orthodox Protestants hold this 
opinion, and thus renounce any true doctrine of in- 
spiration. 

It is not, however, necessary to believe that the in- 
fluence of the Spirit of God upon the mind of the 
writer extends, not simply to the words and thoughts 
and things signified, but also to the form of expres- 
sion, the words and even the punctuation, so that the 
agent was in a manner deprived of his liberty and the 
use of his natural gifts, and only moved his pen as 
the Holy Spirit moved it. The doctrine of inspiration 
approved by the Church and Catholic theologians ex- 
tends the divine authorship to all the sacred books, 
and to each part of the Scripture ; but does not affect 
the material form of the words, which are the wri- 
ter' s own expression, depending upon his individual 
style, genius, or culture. The assistance of the Holy 
Ghost is, however, such that the words chosen by the 
writer shall sufficiently and faithfully express the di- 
vine mind. 

Such an explanation, while it is in complete accord 
with the decrees of the Supreme Pontiffs and the oecu- 
menical councils, is also consonant with the nature 
and style of the sacred books. Each writer has his 
own peculiar gifts, his own mode of expression, the 
varieties of his own genius. This genius and this 
variety are usurped by the Divine Inspirer, who 



190 



Fourth Lecture. 



causes His agents, each in his own way, to proclaim 
the truth and works of God. 

While this variety naturally springs from the free- 
dom of the writer employed by the Holy Ghost, there 
is no possibility of error, or failure to express pre- 
cisely that which is suggested by the Divine Intelli- 
gence. 

No Catholic, however, can admit that the Holy 
Scriptures contain error or falsehood in science, his- 
tory, or chronology. There may be variations in the 
text, or errors in copying the manuscripts; but 
wherever the text is undoubtedly established, the 
supposition of falsehood in the contents of that 
text cannot be admitted. St. Augustine says: "If 
anything absurd be alleged to be there, no man may 
say, ' The author of this book did not hold the truth.' 
But he must say, either the manuscript is faulty, or 
the translator was in error, or you do not understand 
it." * "Let us believe and irremovably affirm that 
in Scripture falsehood has no place. As for us, in 
the history of our religion, upheld by divine au- 
thority, we have no doubt that whatsoever is opposed 
to it is most false, let the literature of the world say 
what it will of it. We cannot say the manuscript 
is faulty, for all the corrected Latin versions have 

* S. Aug. contra Faustum, XI. § 5. 



The Bible in the Church. 



191 



it so. It remains that you do not understand it." 
"Even in the Holy Scriptures themselves, the things 
of which I am ignorant are many more than the 
things which I know."* " Of what weight," says 
Cardinal Manning, ' ' are any number of residual diffi- 
culties against the standing, perpetual, and luminous 5 
miracle which is the continuous manifestation of a 
supernatural history among men ; a history the cha- 
racters, proportions, and features of which are, like 
the order to which it belongs, divine, and therefore 
transcend the ordinary course of nations and of men ? 
One of these divine facts, and that which is the centre 
and source of all our certainty, is the perpetual voice 
of the Church of God. That voice has declared to 
us that the sacred books were written by inspiration ; 
and this is simply to be believed, because it is di- 
vinely true." f It matters not if seeming difficulties 
be presented which surpass the bounds of our experi- 
ence, or refuse the criteria of our statistics. Catholics 
in this faith have never wavered. Their veneration 
for the inspired word has never weakened with the 
so-called discoveries of modern science, the attacks 
of chronologists, or the theorists of philosophy. 
They know " that God is true, even if every man be 

* "De Civ. Dei," XVIII. 40; Contra Faustum, XI. 6. 
f Manning, " Essay upon the Inspiration of Scripture." 



192 



Fourth Lecture. 



found a liar" j* and they are not ready at the first 
notes of the battle to yield the ground to their ad- 
versaries, and give up all that is of value in the doc- 
trine of Scriptural inspiration. The cries of infidelity, 
fortified with the problems of geology, the specula- 
tions of astronomy, or the theories of evolution, 
alarm not those who have a certain creed. While 
many Protestants shrink back before the advancing 
tide of atheism, and reduce their faith to the mini- 
mum, and yield up their Bible as faulty and worth- 
less, Catholics are unmoved. Jesus Christ is the God- 
Man. The Church is His body and His fulness. 
Revelation reaches a world of which eternity and in- 
finity are conditions. Here the child of faith is wiser 
than the proudest , philosopher ; here no shaft of 
man s devising can pierce the heart which has known 
the " truth as it is in Jesus.' 1 The intelligence il- 
lumined looks beyond the world of sense to the land 
of light, where one by one all shadows roll away, and 
the clouds vanish before the rising sun. Here, and 
here alone, the Sacred Scriptures will maintain their 
divine character, and through them their Author, the 
Holy Ghost, will speak to His obedient and believing 
children. 



*Rom. iii. 4. 



The Bible in the Church. 



193 



IV. 

The proper use of the Bible, in accordance with 
Catholic faith and piety. 

The brief view which we have already given of the 
zeal and care which the Church has shown in the pre- 
servation of the Holy Scriptures, will make manifest 
the importance which she attaches to the written 
oracles of God and their proper use. We shall, 
therefore, close these lectures with a short statement 
of her labors in bringing the sacred books before her 
children, and the manner in which she would have us 
study them to the profit of our souls. 

1. In the first lecture of this course we have suffi- 
ciently shown how earnestly the Church took care to 
preserve the original manuscripts, and to copy them 
for the instruction of the faithful. When Ave con- 
sider that the original text could only be found in a 
few principal copies, and that in the early age the 
Christian Fathers were most familiar with the very 
words of the Gospels, we see how constant and faith- 
ful was the vigilance of her bishops and priests. 
There is no doubt that the Septuagint Greek version 
of the Old Testament was in general use at the time 
of our Lord and His apostles ; and it is even quoted 
by them in the Gospels and Epistles. This certainly 
gives a high sanction to this translation. The history 



194 



Fourth Lecture. 



of tliis most important version is of great interest. 
In the time of Ptolemy Philadelphia, who succeeded 
to the throne of Egypt about 285 years before Christ, 
the J ews settled there were without any copy of the 
law which they professed, and were forgetting the 
rites and practices of their religion. To obviate this 
evil, and to enrich the library of his sovereign, De- 
metrius Phalereus proposed to call to Alexandria a 
number of Jews, perfectly conversant with both the 
Greek and Hebrew tongues, in order to translate the 
Scriptures into the former language. Ptolemy as- 
sented, and wrote to the High-Priest, begging him to 
send to Alexandria six persons from every tribe, dis- 
tinguished for their learning and integrity, who 
might undertake this task of translation. This letter 
was carried to the Pontiff Eleazarus by Andrew and 
Aristeas. The result was that seventy-two persons 
went to Alexandria, and in time completed the version, 
which, being read in the presence of the Hellenistic 
Jews, was by them declared to be a faithful transla- 
tion of the inspired original. Whether this version 
was completed by the first translators, or afterwards 
finished by different hands, it was the recognized edi- 
tion of the Old Testament, held in general honor at 
the time of our Lord and in the early Church. 
Some of the early Fathers even considered it to be in- 
spired, so great was their veneration for it. Though 



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195 



there be no certain ground for attributing inspiration 
to the translators, yet their work was the special 
providence and counsel of God ; and while free from 
any errors against faith or morals, is substantially 
conformed to the original text. For many centuries 
the sacred books which contained the prophecies of 
our Lord and His Church were known to the Jews 
only. Now, as the epoch of redemption drew nigh, 
it. was fitting that they should be made known to 
other nations, to whom the Gospel of Christ should be 
preached, that they also might see the predictions of 
the Old Law concerning the Messiah and His dispen- 
sation. This version, being received by the Jews 
generally throughout the world at the time of our 
Lord, was naturally adopted by the Christians of the 
early age. It was in constant use by the Greeks, and 
those to whom their language was familiar, while the 
Western Church availed itself of a Latin version de- 
rived and translated from it. So many copies were 
made of this Alexandrine Version, that among the 
many editions there were defects and errors which it 
was the constant care of the Church to correct. Dis- 
tinguished among these labors is the great work of 
Origen> which in four parallel columns gives the com- 
parison of different copies. Celebrated copies of the 
Septuagint Version, now existing, are the Vatican, 
Alexandrine, and Sinaitic manuscripts, which include 



196 



Fourth Lecture. 



also the Greek text of the New Testament. All 
these ancient manuscripts contain the deutero-can- 
onical books, according to the canon of the Catholic 
Church. After the invention of printing, as we have 
seen in the first lecture, the scholars of the Church at 
once produced an accurate edition of the Septuagint 
Version in type. The polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes, 
a.d. 1515-1517, is especially notable. It was fol- 
lowed by the Antwerp polyglot of 1571 and the 
Paris polyglot of 1645. The Roman edition of 1587, 
published by command of Sixtus V., exceeds all the 
former ones. It was taken from the Vatican Codex, 
with the comparison of many other manuscripts, and, 
besides its intrinsic value, possessed the approbation 
of the Supreme Pontiff. In our own times editions 
of great importance have been published, one in 1857 
under the patronage of Cardinal Mai ; and one under 
the auspices of Pius IX. was begun in 1868, which is a 
facsimile of the Vatican Codex, from the press of the 
Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith. 

Besides these assiduous labors in the copying and 
circulation of this accurate version of the Scriptures, 
the Church, through her scholars and doctors, with 
the encouragement of the Apostolic See, has been 
most diligent to preserve and guard from error the 
original text. The sacred books of the Old Testa- 
ment called proto-canonical were written in the He- 



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197 



brew language, with the exception of certain portions 
of 1 Esdras, of Daniel, and of Jeremias, which were 
in the Chaldaic tongue. The seven deutero-canonical 
books are not found in Hebrew, but in Greek, al- 
though the first book of Machabees, Ecclesiasticus, 
and Baruch were written in Hebrew, while Judith 
and Tobias were in Chaldee. Still, the only version 
remaining of these writings is in the Greek editions of 
which we have spoken. The Hebrew text of the Old 
Testament, through the care of the Church and her 
children, still exists substantially entire and incor- 
rupt, although some errors may have been com- 
mitted by the copyists. The original was without 
vocal points, which were supplied after the sixth cen- 
tury by the Masorites, eminent scholars in the Jew- 
ish tradition. The division of the sacred text into 
chapters was the work of Cardinal Hugo in the 
thirteenth century, who was also the author of the 
Latin Concordance ; and a further subdivision of the 
chapters into verses was made by Robert Stephens 
in 1551. The principal editions of the Hebrew text 
are that of Soncino, in small folio, a.d. 1488 ; that 
of the Complutensian Polyglot, 1517 ; and the second 
Bomberg edition, printed at Venice in 1525. 

The original text of the books of the New Testa- 
ment has also come to us substantially entire and 
incorrupt. Although the sacred writers were Jews, 



198 



Fourth Lecture. 



still the Greek language was better known to them 
and their readers than the Hebrew ; and, with the 
exception of St. Matthew, all wrote their Gospels or 
Epistles in the Greek. The Gospel of St. Matthew 
was probably written in Hebrew. Thus Origen says : 
' ' The first Gospel was written by Matthew, formerly 
the publican, who composed it in the Hebrew r tongue 
for the Jews wlio were converted to the faith." This 
Gospel was afterwards translated into Greek, the lan- 
guage of the other books of the New Testament. 
This original text was the great treasure of the 
Church. Many copies were made of it, and circu- 
lated among Christians throughout the world. It 
became familiar through the daily reading in the 
churches and the commentaries of the Fathers and 
Doctors. The Church w T atched with great vigilance 
over the purity of the Scriptures, which heretics often 
endeavored to corrupt with the interpolation of their 
private readings. The study of the sacred text was 
constant and faithful. The words of the inspired 
writings were committed to memory, and religiously 
kept for the consolation and protection of believers, 
who were every day exposed to persecution and death. 
Hence any substantial corruption of the text was im- 
possible. In the great persecution of Diocletian many 
of the faithful suffered torments, and even gave up 
their lives, rather than deliver the sacred books into 



The Bible in the Church. 



199 



the hands of the pagan. There are also copies of almost 
every age ; so that, going back through the various 
epochs of the Church, even to the third century, we 
can compare our text with that which the Fathers 
used before our day. Many versions of ancient date 
are likewise found, in which appears the substance of 
the original in the translations derived from the pri- 
mary Greek text. 

Among the versions of the Holy Scriptures, the 
only one declared authentic by the Church is the 
Latin Vulgate. The following is the language of the 
holy Council of Trent: "The holy synod, consider- 
ing that no small utility may accrue to the Church of 
God, if it be made known which out of all the Latin 
editions now in circulation of the Sacred Books is 
to be held as authentic, ordains and declares that the 
said old and Vulgate edition, which, by the length- 
ened usage of so many ages, has been approved of in 
the Church, be, in public lectures, disputations, ser- 
mons, and expositions, held as authentic ; and that no 
one is to dare or presume to reject it under any pre- 
text whatever." The same recognition of the Vulgate 
is made by the Vatican Council. This declaration of 
the authenticity of this version not only establishes 
it as the authorized Bible for the faithful, but also as- 
sures us, on divine authority, that it is in conformity 
with the original Scriptures, and that it contains no 



200 



Fourth Lecture. 



important error touching history or fact, as well as 
faith and morals. 

The history of this celebrated version takes us to 
the very first ages of the Church. Among the many 
Latin translations of the Scriptures, the one most in 
use, commended by the Fathers and bishops, was the 
ancient Italic edition. This version is certainly as old 
as the second century, and was probably made in 
Italy under the care of the Supreme Pontiffs. Upon 
this version, and the comparison of its many editions, 
St. Jerome compiled the Latin Vulgate at the request 
of Pope St. Damasus. It appeared a.d. 384, and from 
that date, with the constant care of the Apostolic See. 
has continued substantially the same, as the authorized 
translation of the Scriptures for common and ecclesias- 
tical use. It embraces the whole canon received by the 
Catholic Church, the proto-canonical and the deutero- 
canonical books of the Old Testament, as well as the 
entire New Testament. The proto-canonical books of 
the Old Testament are the work of St. Jerome, with 
the exception of the Psalms, which are probably from 
the Italic version. The Books of Tobias and Judith 
are also the translation of St. Jerome, while the first 
and second Machabees, Baruch, Wisdom, Ecclesiasti- 
cus, Esther, and parts of Daniel are from the ancient 
version.* 

* See Dr. Ubaldi, ' Int. ad Scrip. Sac," I., Thesis xxix. 



The Bible in the Church. 



201 



The Vulgate lias passed through many revisions 
through the labors of the Church and her doctors, and 
the vigilance of the Roman Pontiffs. The present 
standard edition is that of Sixtus V., completed by 
the authority of Clement VIII., and first published at 
Rome A.D. 1592. 

This is the authorized Bible for the Church, and 
the translations made into the vernacular of various 
nations have been made from it, with the diligent com- 
parison of the original text and, where it was possible, 

* 

of the ancient manuscripts. These translations bear 
the local authority of the bishops under whose pa- 
tronage and approbation they were issued. We have 
seen how great was the labor of the Church to place 
before her children the sacred word in all lan^ua^es. 
This has abundantly appeared during the ages when 
the manuscripts were so carefully and constantly 
copied. Buckingham, in his work on k * The Bible in 
the Middle Ages," makes the following summary: 
"From the invention of printing to the period of the 
Reformation there appeared in the ancient languages 
eighty-four editions of the Scriptures, sixty-two in 
Hebrew, of which twelve were of the Old Testament 
entire, and fifty of detached portions ; and twenty-two 
in Greek, of which three were of the Old Testament, 
twelve of the ISTew, and seven of separate portions of 
the Bible. In the Latin, which occupied an interme- 



202 



Fourth Lecture. 



diate position, as being the universal language of the 
priesthood, and a familiar tongue to all the learned 
men in the Christian world, there were published 
three hundred and forty-three editions, of which one 
hundred and forty -eight were of the whole Bible, six- 
ty-two of the New Testament, and one hundred and 
thirty-three of separate books. In the modern lan- 
guages, the dialects of the humblest and poorest 
among the people, there were issued one hundred and 
ninety-eight editions, of which one hundred and four 
were of the entire Bible, comprising twenty in Italian, 
twenty-six in French, nineteen in Flemish, two in 
Spanish, six in Bohemian, one in Sclavonic, and thirty 
in German ; and ninety-four of single portions of the 
Scriptures, consisting chiefly of copies of the New 
Testament and the Psalms. In all, including the 
polyglots, six hundred and twenty editions of the 
Bible and its parts, of which one hundred and ninety- 
eight were in the languages of the laity, had issued 
from the press with the sanction and at the instance 
of the Church, in the countries where she reigned su- 
preme, before the first Protestant version was sent 
forth into the world." * 

The same zeal continues to this day, in the diligent 
study of the inspired word, among the scholars of the 



* Buckingham, pp. 64, 65. 



The Bible in the Church. 



203 



Church, whose erudition is far superior to that of the 
most learned among modern Protestants. The best 
translations are the work of Catholic missionaries, 
who bring great knowledge as well as self-denial to 
their apostolic labors ; and with these versions no 
fault has ever been found. Rather, as we have seen 
in our last lecture, they have sometimes been adopted 
by the Bible Societies, which by this act have con- 
fessed their superiority, as well as the imperfection of 
their own editions. 

Before we close this portion of our discourse it is 
proper to revert for a moment to the history of the 
English version in general use among ourselves. 

This version is commonly styled the Douay or 
Rhemish Bible. The college or seminary of Douay 
had been founded in 1568 by the exertions of Cardinal 
Allen, some time fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. A 
few years afterwards its members were obliged to 
migrate for a time to France, owing to the political 
troubles in Flanders. They established themselves at 
Rheims, where one of their first labors Avas the trans- 
lation of the Holy Scriptures into English. Those to 
whom this labor was entrusted were Dr. William 
Allen, afterwards Cardinal ; Dr. Gregory Martin, of St. 
John's College, Oxford; Dr. Richard Bristow, of 
Christ Church and Exeter ; and John Reynolds, of 
New College. Martin was the translator of the text, 



204 



Fourth Lecture. 



which the rest revised ; and the annotations were 
made by Bristow and Allen. Their preface says : 
" Since Luther and his followers have pretended that 
the Catholic Roman faith is contrary to God's written 
word, and that the Scriptures were not suffered in 
vulgar languages, lest the people should see the 
truth ; and withal these new masters corruptly turn- 
ing the Bible into diverse tongues, as might best 
serve their own opinions — against this false suggestion 
and practice Catholic pastors have, for one especial 
remedy, set forth true and sincere translations in 
most languages of the Latin Church." They also say : 
"We translate the old vulgar Latin text, not the 
common Greek text, for these reasons : 

" 1. It is so ancient that it was used in the Church 
above thirteen hundred years ago. 

"2. It is that, by all probability, which St. Jerome 
afterwards corrected, according to the Greek, by the 
appointment of Pope Damasus. 

u 3. It is the same which St. Augustine so com- 
mended. 

" 4. It has been used, for the most part, ever since 
in the Church' s service. 

" 5. The Holy Council of Trent, for these and many 
other important considerations, hath declared and 
defined this only of all other Latin translations to 
be authentic. 



The Bible in the Church. 



205 



"■6. It is the gravest, sincerest, of greatest majesty 
and least partiality, as being without all respect of 
controversies and contentions, specially those of our 
time. 

"7. It is so exact and precise, according to the 
Greek, both the phrase and the word, that delicate 
heretics therefore reprehend it of rudeness. 

" 8. The adversaries themselves, namely Beza, pre- 
fer it before all the rest. 

" We have used no partiality for the disadvantage 
of our adversaries, nor no more license than is suffer- 
able in translating of Holy Scripture ; continually 
keeping ourselves, as near as is possible, to our text, 
and to the very words and phrases which, by long 
usage, are made venerable ; acknowledging, with St. 
Jerome, that in other writings it is enough in transla- 
tion to give sense for sense, but that in the Scriptures, 
lest we miss the sense, we must keep the very 
words." 

This translation was made soon after the establish- 
ment of the college, but owing to lack of means, or 
their poor estate in exile, the New Testament was not 
published until 1582, and the Old did not appear till 
1609-1610. At these dates these versions were re- 
spectively issued, that of the New Testament at 
Rheims, and that of the Old at Douay, whither the 
translators returned in 1609. 



206 



Fourth Lecture. • 



There were six editions of this Bible printed up to 
the year 1788, in some of which the spelling is mo- 
dernized, and there are a few verbal alterations in the 
text and annotations. 

The revision of Rt. Rev. Dr. Challoner, Vicar- 
Apostolic of the London district, was first published 
in 1749. It passed through six different editions dur- 
ing his life. He endeavored to remove the obscuri- 
ties of the old English text, and to correct its ortho- 
graphy, following the standard Vulgate. His work 
is an able revision of the Douay text in modern Eng- 
lish, and has been, since his day, the generally-re- 
ceived Bible among Catholics, while subsequent edi- 
tions have substantially followed it. 

The correctness of our English translation has been 
generally admitted, while its scholarship is every- 
where respected. 

Dr. AVestcott, already quoted, says: " Its merits, 
and they are considerable, lie in its vocabulary. The 
language is enriched by the bold reduction of innume- 
rable Latin words to English service.' ' 6 'The scrupu- 
lous or even servile adherence of the Rhemists to the 
text of the Vulgate was not always without advan- 
tage. They frequently reproduced with force the 
original order of the Greek, which is preserved in the 
Latin ; and even while many unpleasant roughnesses 
occur, there can be little doubt that their version 



The Bible in the Church. 



207 



gained, on the whole, by the faithfulness with which 
they endeavored to keep the original form of the 
sacred writings." "When the Latin was capable of 
guiding them, the Rhemists seem to have followed 
out their principles honestly ; but wherever it was in- 
adequate or ambiguous they had the niceties of Greek 
at their command. Their treatment of the article 
offers a good illustration of the care and skill with 
w T hich they performed this part of their task. The 
Greek article cannot, as a general rule, be expressed 
in Latin. Here, then, the translators were free to fol- 
low the Greek text ; and the result is that this criti- 
cal point of scholarship is dealt with more satis- 
factorily by them than by any earlier translators. 
And it must be said, also, that in. this respect the 
revisers of King James were less accurate than 
the Rhemists, though they had their work before 
them."' 5 * 

2. The Catholic Church has, then, well fulfilled her 
part in bringing the Sacred Scriptures before her chil- 
dren ; and in her long history nothing has been left 
undone. Their preservation is owing to her labors ; 
and all the faithful are taught to venerate and study 
the written word as the work of the Divine Spirit 
revealing Himself and His truth to men. No lan- 



* Westcott, " History of the English Bible," pp. 261-266. 



208 



Fourth Lecture. 



guage is strong enough to express the devotion which 
she teaches towards the venerable words, indited by 
God Himself, which are her great and inestimable 
treasure. Yet that devotion must be in accordance 
with faith, else the Scriptures may become the instru- 
ments of evil, as they have often been among the par- 
tisans of error. She denies and condemns the Prot- 
estant doctrine that the individual is to learn the 
way of salvation from the reading of the Bible alone, 
since God has revealed His truth to her i "its pillar 
and ground;" and since traditions which, "received 
by the apostles from the mouth of Christ, or from 
the apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating," 
are also of divine authority. "One God is the author 
both of the written and the unwritten word," and 
every believer is to learn the Gospel from the living 
Church, which speaks to all the ages in the name and 
person of her Divine Founder. 

The Catholic Church is the only infallible interpre- 
ter of Scripture, and her faith is necessarily in har- 
mony with the sacred writings. The Holy Ghost 
cannot contradict Himself. The Council of Trent 
decrees "that no one, relying on his own skill, shall, 
in matters of faith and of morals pertaining to the 
edification of Christian doctrine, wresting the Sacred 
Scripture to his own senses, presume to interpret 
it contrary to that sense which holy mother Church, 



The Bible in the Church. 



209 



whose office it is to judge of the true sense and in- 
terpretation of the Holy Scriptures, hath held and 
doth hold ; or even contrary to the unanimous con- 
sent of the Fathers, even though such interpreta- 
tions were never intended to be at any time pub- 
lished." The same decree, in nearly the same lan- 
guage, is reiterated by the Vatican Council. It mani- 
festly explains the proper use of the sacred word 
which she places in the hands of her children. They 
are not to employ their private judgment in its in- 
terpretation ; they are not to look upon it as their 
only teacher ; and they are devoutly to receive it 
for the end which the all-merciful Spirit had in view 
in its inspiration. 

When the Church forbids the private interpreta- 
tion of the Scriptures, she takes from us no privi- 
lege, but only guards us against danger. Where 
the sacred text is plain, it is to be taken in its 
literal sense, which is in full accordance with the 
Catholic interpretation. Where the words of the 
writer are "hard to be understood," the reader is not 
permitted to wrest the oracles of life to his own 
destruction. In any case, and in every case, the 
doctrine of the Church is the guide to the know- 
ledge of the Bible. To show any hardship in this 
denial of private interpretation, it would be neces- 
sary to deny the authority of the Church, and to de- 



210 



Fourth Lecture. 



monstrate that she has ever misinterpreted the in- 
spired word to the support of her creed. It is 
easy, in words, to deny the authority of the Church ; 
but Catholics meet such a denial with the rehearsal 
of the Apostolic Confession, "I believe in one, holy, 
Catholic, and Apostolic Church." They declare that 
the indefectibility and infallibility of the Church are 
guaranteed by the promise of Christ, whose vera- 
city cannot be questioned, and whose power cannot 
fail. They point to the standing fact of her exist- 
ence, which, in face of the world's opposition 
and the devil's malice, is the greatest of miracles. 
They also assert the truth, amply demonstrated in 
these lectures, that where the authority of the 
Church is questioned, there is no foundation for 
any revelation, much less for the belief in the Scrip- 
tures. Where the Church goes down, sooner or later 
all faith in the supernatural goes down with it, and 
there remains only the illogical assertion of contra- 
dictory dogmas, which, like the house built upon 
the sand, crumble before the swelling waves of infi- 
delity. It is necessary to admit the office of the 
infallible Church or deny the divinity of the Holy 
Scriptures. And we may challenge the world to 
show, in honest criticism, any passage of the sacred 
word which the Catholic teaching has perverted or 
misinterpreted. In the light of revealed truth the 



The Bible in the Church, 



211 



ecclesiastical tradition is a sure guide ; and the Holy 
Ghost, who ever speaks in the Church, is permitted 
to speak to the intellect and the heart in the words 
which holy men, at His dictation, have left for our 
edification and sanctification. The way of salvation 
is thus guarded from error. It does not lie in the 
reading of the sacred books by every individual left 
to his unaided reason or possibly erring prejudice. 
This the Catholic creed and all the records of Chris- 
tianity deny. There can be no greater error than 
this, nor one fraught with more terrible evils to the 
souls of men. It has produced the confusing and 
contradictory sects of Protestantism. It has well- 
nigh ruined the faith and hope of thousands who 
are the victims of a blank atheism, which is the lo- 
gical sequence of the so-called Biblical Christianity. 
Therefore to read the Holy Scriptures without fear 
of error, with the light of the city of God upon earth, 
with the certain guidance of the Divine Spirit, who 
keeps the Church in the way of truth, is the privilege 
of Catholics. It is a privilege which belongs not to 
others, who in their self-confidence are left to the 
darkness of their own reason, and deprived of the 
illumination which dwells in the temple which the 
Holy Trinity fills. 

"As often as the heretics bring forth the canonical 
Scriptures," says Origen, "they seem to say, 'Be- 



212 



Fourth Lecture. 



hold, in the houses is the word of truth. 1 But we 
are not to credit them, nor to go out from the first 
and ecclesiastical tradition, nor to believe otherwise 
than according as the churches of God have by suc- 
cession transmitted to us."* • 

So speaks St. Leo : " It is not lawful to diifer, even 
by one word, from the evangelic and apostolic doc- 
trine, or to think otherwise concerning the divine 
Scriptures than as the blessed apostles and our fa- 
thers learned and taught/ 1 + 

The holy Fathers, in the light of the teaching of the 
Church and her immutable faith, interpret the sacred 
word, and draw from it the plain confirmation of 
the ecclesiastical tradition. There is, and can be, 
no contradiction between the Catholic doctrine and 
the written word. " Heresies and perverse opinions," 
says St. Augustine, "have sprung up by the mis- 
understanding and misinterpretation of the Scrip- 
tures, where that which is badly understood is rashly 
and boldly asserted. Wherefore, with a pious heart, 
we are to adhere to this sound rule, to rejoice over 
whatsoever we are able to understand in accordance 
with the faith wherewith we have been imbued. 
But as to whatsoever we may not, as yet, be able to 
understand in accordance with this sound rule of 



* Origen, T. III. in Matt. 



f Ep. LXXXII. ad Marcion. 



The Bible in the Church. 



213 



faith, we must put aside all doubt, and defer to some 
other time the understanding of it, knowing that it 
is good and true eyen though we know not what it 
means." * 

In the observance of this rule lies safety, as well as 
the unity of faith. Catholics always are found in 
unity of belief ; and the plain literal sense of Scrip- 
ture is accepted by them with reverence for the words 
of the Holy Spirit, and without any attempt to wrest 
or distort their meaning. Here they challenge their 
adversaries, who are unwilling to receive the literal 
interpretation of the text, and are forced often to 
support their teachings by the most unnatural and 
sometimes dishonest means. One thing is certain: 
the Scriptures cannot contradict themselves. Yet 
they are forced to do this by all the Protestant 
critics, who, in the exercise of their liberty, attempt 
to establish a system of belief inconsonant with itself 
and the truths of revelation. And, confessedly, in 
the Catholic Church alone can be found unity of 
faith, which must be the natural result of the work of 
the Holy Ghost. They, therefore, who wander from 
this unity read not aright the inspired writings, but 
by the variety of their private interpretations are con- 
victed of error. 

* Tract XVIII. in Joan. Evang. 



214 



Fourth Lecture. 



The Catholic, devoutly studying the Sacred Scrip- 
tures, is not allowed for one moment to look upon 
them as the only fountain of truth. Receiving them 
as divine upon the authority of the Church, of neces- 
sity he accepts the voice of the Church as that of 
God, and from her learns the faith which is necessary 
to salvation. She teaches in the name and power of 
Jesus Christ ; and from Him pours out the sanctify- 
ing grace which regenerates and glorifies. Neither 
do the inspired books explicitly contain all which we 
are bound to believe. They were not written for such 
an end. They are not in the form of a catechism or a 
creed. They were written to those who were orally 
taught, and were in possession of the divine teach- 
ing communicated from the Holy Spirit through the 
prophets or the apostles. They imply the know- 
ledge of Christian truth, which they speak of as 
settled, and which they illumine and make fruitful. 
This principle, denied by Protestants in theory, is ac- 
cepted by them in practice, since no one of their 
many creeds can be substantiated by the words of the 
Bible ; and many of their cherished doctrines are not 
to be found in the Scriptures. The errors of the sects 
are surely not deducible from the inspired text, and 
even some of those truths which they profess to hold 
are not explicitly stated. Without the Church there 
is only confusion, with constant contradiction of the 



The Bible in the Church. 215 

first principles of logic. The Holy Scriptures are 
true and divine in every part, but they are not in any 
sense the only rule of faith. All the interpretations 
of men could never establish any article of the Chris- 
tian creed. No man, however holy or learned, is 
able to make a faith for himself. To be a Christian 
he must receive and hold the teachings of Christ and 
His apostles, which can never fail. For any doctrine 
to be of Catholic faith two things are necessary : first, 
that it be revealed ; and, secondly, that it be proposed 
to us by the Church. The second condition really 
presupposes the first ; for as the apostles were com- 
missioned to teach only such truths as they had re- 
ceived from Christ, so their successors, by virtue of 
the same commission and under the guidance of the 
same Spirit, continued to teach the same. Accepting, 
therefore, the truth proposed by the Church and her 
infallible head, we are not to inquire if this doctrine 
revealed by God be found in the written oracles. 
We are certain that the Holy Ghost cannot be di- 
vided against Himself ; that, teaching in the Church, 
He cannot contradict the words He has inspired. 
Until the days of Protestant heresy, which attacked 
the fundamental doctrine of the authority of the 
Church, it was never even hinted that the whole de- 
posit of faith must be explicitly stated in the sacred 
canon.. " Although," says St, Augustine, " no ex- 



216 



Fourth Lecture. 



ample of the matter in question can be produced from 
the canonical Scriptures, yet here also is the truth of 
the Scriptures held by us, since we do that which has 
now obtained the sanction of the universal Church, 
which the authority of the Scriptures themselves 
commends." * The Church is a living and speaking 
authority preserved by Jesus Christ Himself, and 
sanctified by the Holy Ghost, who day by day brings 
to her mind all truth, that she may stand to the end 
of the ages "its pillar and ground." If we were left 
to find in the written word not only the substance but 
also the form of our dogmas, we should long ago have 
fallen into the uncertainty of doubt and the- misery 
of unbelief. Protestants, casting otf the authority of 
the living, divine guide, have thrown away, one after 
another, the articles of the Christian creed ; and 
shielding themselves by the real or pretended silence 
of the sacred text, have come little by little to the 
denial of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the work of the 
Holy Spirit, and the sacraments of grace by which 
the redemption is applied to men. The theory that 
everything to be believed must appear in plain words 
in Holy Scripture is among the most dangerous errors 
of our time. It is consonant with the assertion. of the 
right of private interpretation which overthrows the 

* T. IX. "Contra. Crescon. Donat." 



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217 



office of the Church, and divorces what . God has 
joined together, the divine tradition and the written 
word. This separation is destructive of the life and 
power of the inspired writings, as well as of the end 
for which the Spirit of truth indited them. 

Our doctrine, therefore, is in harmony with all 
Christian antiquity, and with the teachings of 
human reason. The Redeemer of our race has 
founded His Church upon an immovable rock, and 
by miracles of unquestioned divinity has authenti- 
cated her mission and work. Nothing can overthrow 
this testimony which rests upon the sure laws of evi- 
dence. From the Church, thus depending upon her 
almighty Founder, we have received the Sacred Scrip 
tares. Her voice is infallible either in the proposing 
of doctrine or in the authentication of the written 
oracles of God ; infallible in all she declares, since the 
Holy Ghost speaks in her. This is the apostolic rule : 
" We are of God : he that is of God heareth us ; he 
that is not of God heareth us not ; by this w r e know 
the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." * Safely 
guarded by this rule, we are prepared to receive and 
improve the treasures of grace which are to be found 
in the words of inspiration. Thus "all Scripture in- 
spired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to 



* 1 St. John iv. 6. 



218 



Fourth Lecture. 



correct, to instruct in justice." Thus u the holy 
Scriptures can instruct us to salvation by the faith 
which is in Christ Jesus." * Illumined by the light 
of a certain faith, taught by the interior operations of 
the Holy Ghost, we are able to know something of the 
mind of the Spirit, and to discern the meaning of words 
which otherwise might be to us as an unlettered 
scroll. So different is the devout study of the in- 
spired volume by a faithful Catholic, from the Pro- 
testant interpretations of private judgment, that there 
is scarcely place for comparison. One seeks the aid 
of the Scriptures to establish preconceived opinions, 
or to fortify grounds of doctrinal controversy which 
are identified with individual pride. With rare ex- 
ceptions can be found the humility and distrust of self, 
which are so necessary in the presence of God and in 
the hearing of His voice. And in probably no case can 
one educated under the influences of Protestantism 
approach the inspired volume with a free mind and a 
willing heart. No one ever learned his faith from the 
Bible alone. Every reader is either the possessor of a 
faith imbibed from the lessons of childhood, or the 
victim of prejudices acquired by education. Ex- 
perience has demonstrated that there is no abso 
lutely impartial mind, and that the unspeaking page 



* 2 Timothy iii. 15, 16. 



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219 



of Scripture is made to answer to the will of the 
reader. There is rarely to be found the complete 
submission of the intellect before the words of the 
Holy Ghost. 

The Catholic, on the contrary, does not come to 
the study of the inspired volume in doubt concerning 
his creed. The same authority which gives him his 
creed proposes to him the written word inspired by 
God. In the unfailing light of his faith he sees the 
wonders and beauties of the whole field of inspira- 
tion. The more he reads, the more is his faith 
strengthened, and the riches of revealed truth come 
forth more brightly from day to day. All is in har- 
mony. The voice of the Church without, the lan- 
guage of the Evangelists and prophets, and the 
promptings of the Spirit within him. Without contra- 
diction, without the possibility of error, he looks to 
God in revelation and redemption, and grows in the 
knowledge and love of his Lord and Saviour. On 
every side light increases until the divine truth fills 
his mind, and the world of faith becomes more real to 
him than that of sense. 

Who, amid the distracting and conflicting errors of 
our time, does not desire this blessing of a certain 
faith, this sure knowledge of God and His revelation \ 
Protestantism has been thoroughly tried and found 
wanting. It has no creed. It gives to no one any 



220 



Fourth Lecture. 



truthful answer to the great needs of the soul. From 
it have come, by the deductions of logic and the ex- 
perience of facts, infidelity broad and deep, the denial 
of everything sacred, the loss of Christ and His 
Gospel. In all its changing forms, with all its profes- 
sions, it is ever the same denier of positive religion, 
which depends absolutely upon an immutable creed. 
How can the earnest and sincere be the willing vic- 
tims of delusion, striving in vain to make a religion 
for themselves, and thus attempting to intrude into 
the province of the Almighty ? Behold the ark of 
God. Its open door invites the entrance of all who 
would escape the eternal doom, when the storm shall 
arise in its fury, and the floods lift up their waves. It 
shall be borne upon the face of the angry deluge ; it 
shall rest upon the everlasting mountains, where the 
Uncreated Light shall dawn upon a new heaven and a 
new earth, and the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, shall 
reveal the perfections of the adorable Trinity. 

Then shall "we no longer see through a glass in a 
dark manner, but face to face." * 

The inspired language of St. Paul may well be ap- 
plied to many in our day whose eyes are blinded 
that they see not the truth. The veil is upon their 
senses and upon their hearts : "For, until this present 



* 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 



The Bible in the Church 



221 



day, the self-same veil, in the reading of the Scrip- 
tures, remaineth not taken away ; because in Christ 
it is made void. But when they shall be converted to 
the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now the 
Lord is a Spirit ; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, 
there is liberty. But we all beholding the glory of 
the Lord with open face, are transformed into the 
same image, from glory to glory." * 



* 2 Cor. iii. 14-18, 



